7. Delivering race equality

The Government has now launched an NHS-wide programme of change outlined in its document Delivering Race Equality (Department of Health 2005). The programme is based on three ‘building blocks’ first proposed in the consultation version of the document:

  • more appropriate and responsive services, including the development of a more culturally capable workforce
  • community engagement, supported by 500 new Community Development Workers, and
  • better information, including a new annual census of mental health patients.

The Government’s Five Year Plan for achieving equality and tackling discrimination in mental health services in England is the most important policy statement on BME mental health. It aims to achieve:

  • less fear of mental health services among BME communities and service users
  • increased satisfaction with services
  • a reduction in the rate of admission of people from BME communities to psychiatric inpatient units
  • a reduction in the disproportionate rates of compulsory detention of BME service users in inpatient units
  • fewer violent incidents that are secondary to inadequate treatment of mental illness
  • a reduction in the use of seclusion in BME groups
  • the prevention of deaths in mental health services following physical intervention
  • more BME service users reaching self-reported states of recovery
  • a reduction in the ethnic disparities found in prison populations
  • a more balanced range of effective therapies, such as peer support services and psychotherapeutic and counselling treatments, as well as pharmacological interventions that are culturally appropriate and effective
  • a more active role for BME communities and BME service users in the training of professionals, in the development of mental health policy, and in the planning and provision of services
  • a workforce and organisation capable of delivering appropriate and responsive mental health services to BME communities.

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