An Examination Of The Development

Introduction

The social policy is related to improving and promoting the well-being of the society on a large scale. This is because social policies framed by the government and state help to protect the individuals in the society from any form of racism, bullying, discrimination or others. Moreover, it helps the individuals in society to live a productive life by accessing proper healthcare, supplementing income and obtaining needed medical treatments. Thus, effective information of social policies is able to assist in tackling the issues regarding welfare in the society to deliver a positive impact on the lives of the individuals. In relation to this, the aim of the assignment is to provide definition of social policy and discuss brief information about development of social policy regarding mental health in the UK since 1945. Moreover, the assignment is going to analyse and evaluate the Mental Health policy being developed in the UK to tackle mental health issues to identify its present performance. Further, it is to determine the improvements required for the policy for the better assurance of effective mental health of the UK individuals.

Definition of Social Policy and Brief about social policy in the UK

Social Policy is defined as the actions which are taken in society for developing as well as delivering services to the people for meeting their needs of wellbeing and welfare (Titmuss, 2018). This is required to ensure better quality of living of the individuals in the society. The area of social policy to be discussed is mental health in the UK because it is one of the key issues being faced by individuals in the society within the country that is influencing the quality of their living in the society. This is evident as in 2018 it is informed that one in every four adults and one in ten children in the UK are suffering from mental health issues that are influencing their quality of living in the society due to various factors (researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk, 2018). Further, in Wales, nearly 12% of individuals are receiving treatment for mental illness (www.mentalhealth.org.uk, 2017). Thus, discussion of the area of social policy regarding mental health in the UK/Wales is going to offer knowledge regarding the present social situations and policies being developed regarding it to cope with the alarming figure of mentally-ill individuals.

Since 1945, wide number of changes has been seen to be developed in relation to mental health in the UK to tackle the social issues being faced by mentally ill individuals and their families (historicengland.org.uk, 2018). In 1948, the National Health Services (NHS) is being formed in the UK for Wales, England and Scotland to tackle public health issues of all forms including mental health. They had the motive to offer free healthcare services to mentally-ill individuals and other people facing diverse health issues to improve the quality of life of the public in the UK (www.nhs.uk, 2018). This helped the people suffering from mental health issues in the UK to find support from the government level in a structure to cope with mental illness for improving their quality of living in the society.

In 1955, the Chlorpromazine was introduced in the UK as first psychotic drug to be administered to the mentally-ill individuals to cope with the negative impact of the illness (Sanghani et al. 2018). In 1959, the development of the Mental Health Act created a therapeutic revolution for the mentally-ill people in the UK. In 1962, plans are developed for creating mental hospitals and community-based hospitals to care and treat the mentally-ill individuals and in 1971 the Medico-Psychological Association was changed to Royal College of Psychiatrists (www.rcpsych.ac.uk, 2018). These improvements in the mental health areas in the UK resulted to offer better scope to the mentally-ill individuals to access effective healthcare services required for their quality livelihood. In 1983, the Mental Health Act in the UK is introduced by the government to protect the mentally-ill individuals (www.legislation.gov.uk, 1983). This Act led to legally protect the mentally-ill individuals from abuse, harm, discrimination and various other social factors thus ensuring them better quality of living in the society.

In 1999, the National Framework for Mental Health set various modern service models which led to better quality care of the mentally-ill individuals. In 2001, the Valuing People white paper was introduced for individuals with learning disability. In 2004, the Bolfeld inquiry made 22 recommendations to be added in the social policy regarding mental health for the protection of detained patients and to tackle racism in the NHS (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk, 2018). In 2007, the Mental Health Act was seen to introduce the policy that offers power to the individuals in the community in the UK to access compulsory treatment for their mental illness in all condition (www.legislation.gov.uk, 2007). These led to provide improved social support and healthcare opportunities to the mentally-ill individuals in the UK. Moreover, in the recent years various updated technology, psychological therapies, innovative medicines and others are being implemented for treatment of patients in the UK suffering from mental illness through various policies to offer them better health outcomes.

Analysis of policy

The Together for Mental Health policy introduced by the Wales government from 2012 with a 10 year has the key aim of prioritising mental illness by making the Public Health Wales reflect the importance of mental health in their planning by putting it at par with the physical health (gov.wales, 2018). This aim is developed so that the policy is able to provide effective care service opportunity and better health conditions for the mentally-ill people to experience better mental health condition. The reason behind the introduction of the policy is that increased incidences of poor mental health at large are being reported as cause of disability for the individuals in Wales to face barriers in living their life in a better way. Moreover, the mental health issues were seen to influence the physical health of the individuals in the UK and were responsible for creating issues at work, education and social relationships. Thus, to improve the psychological, social and physical aspects of the individuals in Wales for helping them to live a quality live; improvements are made related to mental well-being and health through the introduction of the policy (socialcare.wales, 2012).

One of the objectives of the Mental Health policy is to make better access to mental health services for the individuals and offer them minimum waiting time for services as a priority for the NHS Wales (gov.wales, 2018). This is because many individuals in Wales were found to face deteriorated mental health as a result of lack of early care services access for the treatment of their mental health by the health professionals. As mentioned by Wang et al. (2016), early detection of mental illness helps to avoid deterioration of health of the individuals and provides opportunity to health professional to face less complexity in treatment of the patients. Thus, the objective of the Mental Health Policy was evident to offer effective services at the right time to the mentally-ill individuals for ensuring their better health outcome. Moreover, lower amount of waiting time for the mentally-ill individuals to avail services from NHS would offer them the opportunity to have access to early care (www.bavo.org.uk, 2015).

The other objective of the Policy was to control and reduce discrimination, negative stigma, abuse and harm and other factors related to mental illness (socialcare.wales, 2012). This is required as with the control of negative stigma and reduction of discrimination more mentally-ill individuals can be able to live a better life without harm and abuse or isolation. The objective of the Policy is also to provide mental health first aid to the people by identifying the signs and symptoms of mental illness at the early stage to offer the individuals care and support in the crisis situation to cope with the illness (www2.nphs.wales.nhs.uk, 2013). This is required to offer early services to the mentally-ill individuals at Wales to help them have improved mental health and better quality of living.

The Policy has the objective to create campaigns against negative stigma and discrimination existing for the mental illness in the society (www.mentalhealthwales.net, 2018). This is because negative stigma regarding mental illness in the society in Wales has led to abuse and harm of the mentally-ill individuals. As commented by Murphy and Busuttil (2015), negative stigma regarding mental health in the UK lead the mentally-ill individuals to face isolation from the society. This is because the individuals are seen as a potential threat and as a care burden for the society. Thus, the objective is effective to raise awareness among the public to act in a non-discriminative manner with the mentally-ill individuals and develop scientific thoughts about mental illness to avoid rise of negative stigma regarding the disease.

The other objective of the Together for Mental Health policy is to prevent suicides and self-harm among mentally-ill individuals. This is because nearly 9.2% suicide cases in 100,000 populations and 5500 cases of self-harm in Wales are being reported in 2014 (www.mentalhealth.org.uk, 2017). Thus, the objective was effective as it has the focus to prevent uncertain death of the mentally-ill individuals. The Policy has the objective to improve mental health services for the veterans (socialcare.wales, 2012). This is because the members of the military who have fought for the nation deserves improved mental health services being noble citizens. Further, the objective of the Policy is to develop improved access of psychological therapies for the individuals at Wales and offer them guidance regarding diet and other aspects related to improvement of their mental health. Moreover, they had the objective to protect the dignity and rights of the mentally-ill people (socialcare.wales, 2012). This is an effective objective as its accomplishment is going to prevent as well as control the prevalence of increased mental illness at Wales. In many instances, it is seen that the dignity and rights of the mentally ill people are violated as they are unable to speak or care for themselves (Megnin-Viggars et al. 2015). Thus, in this situation, the accomplishment of the objective would able to assure the dignity and rights of the mentally ill people in Wales.

Evaluation of the policy

The Together for Mental Health policy developed by the Wales government has effectively worked to allow individuals of Wales to have access to effective services and advice for the promotion of their mental well-being. It is evident as through the policy the Welsh government has funded the project regarding online availability of CBT across Wales for individuals above the age of 16 to have online support for management and treatment for mild to moderate mental health conditions (gov.wales, 2017). This has led 1 in 8 adults along with 43.4% of Welsh population suffering from mental illness to receive diagnosis and treatment to cope with the mental health problem (www.mind.org.uk, 2018; www.mentalhealth.org.uk, 2017). Thus, the policy has helped to provide effective access to mental health services and treatment which has led nearly half of the population in Wales to receive treatment for resolving their mental illness.

The Together for Mental Health policy has adopted the “Time to Change Wales” program for tackling stigma and discrimination regarding mental illness. Moreover, under the policy, the government has developed screening division who also works to reduce inequalities regarding mental health in the society (www.goodpractice.wales, 2017). This has worked for the policy to create awareness among individuals in Wales to dissolve stigma and discrimination regarding mental health at an increased rate to view mental illness in a positive manner. It is evident from the report where it is mentioned that after the introduction of the program through the policy nearly 120,000 more individuals in Wales are accepting mental illness in a positive manner in 2016 compared to 2012. This informs that a rise of 4.7% awareness regarding the disease is seen among the individuals of Wales (www.walesonline.co.uk, 2017).

The policy has planned to engage more number of individuals to provide mental health first aid to mentally-ill people at Wales. This was effectively accomplished as evident from the figures where only 343 members involved in providing mental first aid in 2013 compared to 1889 individuals involved in 2014 (gov.wales, 2017). Thus, the policy was successful in involving increased members to offer mental health first aid to the people in Wales. This is effective to create required mental first aid services opportunity for the individuals in Wales thus ensuring them better healthcare services at early stage of the illness. The policy when implemented through its objectives has the plan to ensure dignity and protection of rights of the mentally-ill individuals at Wales. On the basis of this aspect of the policy, the Mental Health Act 1983 was introduced and Public Health Wales 1000 Lives Improvement services were also implemented in improving service user’s experiences while availing care to have proper dignity and protection of their rights (www.goodpractice.wales, 2017). This led to help the service providers meet the standards of safety, quality of life, least restrictive practices and others to offer dignified and respectful services to the mentally-ill people in Wales according to their needs and demands. Thus, it provides evidence for the accomplishment of the mentioned objective of the policy.

The assurance of less waiting time to get services from NHS Wales through the policy has not been accomplished. This is because the demands for the mental health services have run ahead of the capacity of social workers and health professionals involved under the policy for offering care within less time from the NHS to the services users in Wales (www.wales.nhs.uk, 2017). This is evident as per the general reports where it is been mentioned that in 2016 the average waiting time for the patients suffering from acute or chronic mental health issues to wait 50 days for specialised care services in Wales (www.cadmhas.co.uk, 2016). The staff shortage in healthcare also leads to less treatment rate of individuals which means that many people suffering from illness may go unnoticed or lack diagnosis to avail proper care (Docherty and Thornicroft, 2015). This situation is also been to be faced in Wales as nearly 25,000 people suffering from Dementia were reported to be lack proper diagnosis of the illness to avail care services for the solution of the health disorder (www.mentalhealth.org.uk, 2016). Thus, the policy is not been effective to create holistic well-being and effective promotion of healthcare for the mentally-ill people at Wales.

The Together for Mental Health policy being developed is seen to be insufficiently focussed on recovery of the mentally-ill individuals at Wales in the present. This means that the policy is focussed on creating active rehabilitation rather than focusing on the long-term effect (www.goodpractice.wales, 2017). It has posed a problem for the policy not to have adequate human resource required by the growing population at Wales who are suffering from mental illness to be remained unattended. This is evident as adequate number of individuals required for caring the growing population of Wales is not being found. Thus, it informs that the policy is unable to successfully promote the well-being of the mentally-ill individuals at Wales for a longer time. The policy was seen to fail in providing effective mental healthcare to the veterans. This is evident as only 25,000 out of 50,000 veterans in England and Wales are being able to receive care services for their mental illness (www.dailypost.co.uk, 2018).

Recommendations

The first recommendation for the Together for Mental Health policy is to determine its activities for the improvement of the mental well-being of individuals by considering long-term impact. This means that the plans in the policy are to be made by determining and assessing the growing population in Wales. The policy members also require identifying the nature of population that is old or young are increased and are recommended to arrange the mental care services accordingly. The second recommendation is that the policy requires recruiting more staffs for the effective and timely care of the service users. This is because it would help to reduce the waiting time of the service users at Wales assisting them to avail care services at early stage of the disease to effectively cope it. The policy also requires to allocate finances and develop partnership between organisation to educate individuals about the way they can personally identify they are suffering from mental illness. This is required to create awareness among the individuals in Wales to take early steps with personal initiative to avail mental care from health professionals. The further recommendations for the policy are to more effectively focus on the healthcare service management for the mentally-ill veterans so that increased number of veterans living in Wales can be provided services.

Conclusion

The above discussion informs that social policy is referred to the actions taken in the society for assuring well-being to the individuals to help them develop better quality living and positive social relationship. The area of social policy being discussed is mental health condition in Wales because poor mental health condition is one of the key issues which is hindering better health outcome of the individuals. The Together for Mental Health policy developed by the Welsh government is being discussed which has the key aim to promote ensure positive mental health and well-being of the individuals. The evaluation of the policy informs that it was able to lower negative stigma regarding mental illness and is able to promote mental well-being of the population. However, the lack of lower staff availability along with lack of long-term approach has resulted the policy to face failure is creating effective mental health improvement of the individuals at Wales to great extent.

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