Health and wellbeing boards and mental health
Jonathan Scrutton
The 152 health and wellbeing boards (HWBs) in England are responsible for setting local health priorities through a needs assessment and the resulting health and wellbeing strategy. Most of England’s HWBs are prioritising at least one mental health issue in their strategies but almost one in ten has ignored it entirely, according to our research for this report.
A Place for Parity looks at how much focus the boards have given to mental health in their strategies, which areas of mental health they focus on and what factors helped or hindered the agenda of mental health during the development of the strategies.
The report makes recommendations for boards, mental health organisations and policy makers, including: encouraging boards to actively consult with mental health service users, carers and professionals when setting local priorities and encouraging and supporting boards to bring in or delegate a mental health ‘champion’.
Audience: Health and Wellbeing Boards, mental health services and policy makers.
