Changes
are proposed to mental health services in Lancashire.
Lancashire
PCTs spend over £23m a year on specialist community mental health services
across the County, enabling more people to be treated at home, promoting
recovery and independence.
Examples
of investment in specialist community mental health services across Lancashire include Early intervention services, Crisis
intervention/home treatment services and
Assertive
outreach services.
As
a result of the investment in services, the demand for inpatient beds has been
reducing steadily over time as more people are being supported in the community
and as a consequence, there are now too many inpatient beds in Lancashire.
As
review is now looking into reducing the number of inpatient facilities to
establish a smaller number of new, purpose-built inpatient sites, together with
a continuing emphasis on community-based facilities and the need for an
increasing focus on dementia.
A
‘Technical Appraisal Group’ (TAG), which includes specialist mental health
clinicians, GPs and service users, has been set up to assess the evidence to
decide what the future arrangement of inpatient services should be.
The
TAG group will consider a range of clinical matters including outstanding
issues relating to dementia and crisis services across Lancashire.
TAG
will report to the single Lancashire-wide Health Overview and Scrutiny
Committee summarising their findings in June.
The
committee will also hear results from further engagement on the key issues.
The
Committee will decide on what the next steps are with a public consultation
being one possibility.
