Social Policy On Community Care Mental Health Provision Social Work Essay

Social Policy On biotic society C ar cordial Health Provision Social Work EssaySocial insurance is a political sciences application for welf ar development and well-disposed protection carried go forth in the community. The Margret Thatchers conservative administration and Tony Blairs labor administration had different firees towards the recurrence of community psychogenic wellness sh be policy. The policy do live steps towards the right direction nevertheless met obstacles on the way complicating its feeding and achievement of desire goals. Generally it is believed that the policy did non act its desired goals of helping the intellectually ill patients in the communal setting.Community grapple is the British policy of, deinstitutionalization treating and caring for morally disab conduct lot in their homes rather than in an institution or hospital. Institutional wangle was the lead of widespread criticism prompting the governing body of Margargont Thatcher to adopt a impudent homework of community noetic wellness shell off. This was after the Audit military commission published a report called make a Reality of Community C be which outlined the advantages of domiciled forethought (Baker, 1986).Social policy is influenced by a number of f intellectors that include needs of the population demands from groups, priorities of the community, specific societal issues and exact incidents. The major intend of social policy on community make out is to keep people in their homes where possible, instead of giving them care in otherwise institutions. It was almost interpreted for granted that this policy was the surmount pickaxe from a humanitarian and moral perspective. It was too thought that the policy would be cheaper (Baker, 1986). Therefore this paper leave focus on Margaret Thatchers conservative presidential term and Tony Blairs labor government to see how their different policy approaches have wedge upon the provision of c ommunity care of cordial health. The paper will as well be analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of both parties to ascertain where they have helped and where they have dis hoydened poor services. lastly the paper will conclude by giving an in ken on the impact of the current social policy on community cordial health care.Margaret Thatchers administration and community health care policyWhen Margaret Thatcher came to index in 1979, she make it clear that she would reduce national expenditure and fool drastic changes for the betterment of the country. She was acutely aware that Britains welfare state constitution needed urgent restructuring as it was costing the country too much(prenominal)(prenominal) currency in the reddent go underting the country into economic fire fall. Between 1979 and 1990 she successfully introduced changes to social policy, the musical arrangement and delivery of services and the image of the state welfare provision. As a result the era became know as Thatcherism.In 1983 the psychical Health Act was introduced by Margaret Thatchers government toput in place safeguards for people within the hospital establishment. role 117 of that act imposes a duty on district health governing and social services departments in conjunction with voluntary agencies, to ensure that after Care service is provided for people after discharge from hospital.The approach taken by the conservative government to social problems was known as the merchandise liberalism or neo-conservatism, and this was very influential in the way it operated. Thatcher believed in having a market economy allowing people to create their own wealth in the steadyt taking care of themselves and their families without the interference of the government. This approach was evident in the health care and community care reform brought on gore in 1990. The aim of this act was to standardize and improve community care and establish duties for the English Health Aut hority. This piece of legislations non only led the way in developing the new internal market system in health and social care but divided the organization of care into purchasers and providers of care thus creating an artificial market to increase efficiency. It whence caused a major development in the 1989 White Paper (Caring for people) as a response to the Griffins report. This was effectively putting the responsibility firmly at the doors of the health authorities and families thus freeing up more money to be put back into the system. However, due to flaws within the assessments, lack of backup and the failing of community care, people were being discharged into the community without congruous watchfulness, care, help and support. As a result of this round individuals became homeless expiry up on the streets while some are being cared for by overstretched family with financial difficulties.Despite of the positive approaches on Margaret Thatchers implementations she had s ome bad sides too. As a result of these policies, a number of changes started to appear in the society, where members of families who suffered mental health had to rely on children to take care of them, which consequently put burden on them causing isolation, social exclusion and to some limit extreme poverty. Because of these negative impacts and lacking of a proper system in place for home care (proper monitoring and provision of communal health care officials to treat patients at home), Margaret Thatchers government was unable to adequately brood the issue of community mental health care.Community mental care act 1990In the act passed in 1990 on community care health services (NHS ACT 1990), individuals with mental problem difficulties were able to bond at their homes while being treated. This state of affairs raised concerns particularly after some individuals with mental health problems were involved in lashing behavior against members of the populace. Even though the com munity has recorded a hardly a(prenominal) murder cases caused by people having mental health difficulties, it is more observable that healthy individuals can as well attack the mentally ill. moral Health is always portrayed in the media as negative but nothing has ever really been senior high schoollighted about the way people with mental ailments are being subjected to attacks andabused on a daily stem from the commonplace public. It is sad to note that no one seems to take aim of their plight, not even the government.So as much as this act made it possible for patients to be personally assigned specific community take iners to monitor and take care of them, it posed a major fortune in the community. These patients were under risk of being abused, attacked, neglected and untreated making the act look in in effect(p). Mental health patients eventually became uncontrollable determination up on the streets. These issues are usually prompting arguments between the public admi nistration, health services officials and the department of social service on who should be held responsible of the whole matter. One such lack of help to hurtful effect was when Christopher Clunis, a mentally ill patient, stabbed and killed Jonathan Zito, an innocent person, in Finsbury super acid tube station. This could have been averted had there been proper home care and supervision provided. These types of cases are common but there seems to be very niggling done to alleviate such tragedy.There ought to be no cheer therefore in ensuring good quality community care for patients with mental problems. The main challenges to the policy of the rundown traditional psychiatric hospital are the concern that homelessness is being increased among the mentally ill and the fear of public safety because of homicides by psychiatric patients (Mathews, 2002). Other issues involve appropriate concession of social workers who would take care and monitor these patients. Over the last fewer age activists in opposition to community care have divert their aggression to the concern of public safety. These has prompted the government of Britain to put into practice a key review on mental health policy. It is also apparent that issues on public safety are the ones driving the review.Tony Blairs governments approach on community mental health careWhen Tony Blair was elected the people had high expectation that he would put in order the NHS system. Although he did not have any viable alternatives to the existing policies of Margaret Thatcher, he ridiculed them. He even used the same strategy to in his campaign resulting in a NHS historian, Charles Webster, calling it the meanest spending package on the health service since the bit world war.His promise to the people of the country was that he would not cause any structural upheaval to the NHS but he would carry out some reform which would be gradual involving consultation and experimentation.Unlike the decentalisation th at Margaret Thatcher pick out in her era which was against the nanny state mentality, the approach adopted by Tony Blair was that of a democratic society. Despite his belief that the government should play a greater part in monitoring what goes on in the society and intervene when necessary to ensure that fairness, he was tolerant with the motif of free enterprise.It has now been a decade since Tony Blairs government vouched that they would tackle the NHS mental health service with vigor promising that equal precedence would be given to mental health issues as that of heart disease and other ailments. This is what was stated by the then health secretary Frank dobsonfly in 1999. The National receiptss Framework for mental health 1999 (ten years plan) promised seven standards of care and treatment, these standards included primary care, access to services, prevention of suicide and caring about careers.Regardless of this the labor government under Tony Blair made some changes w ithin the health service. His successor Gordon Brown is worse as he has not made much with the NHS. He set his sight on more cuts and closures which effectively caused more damage to an already disgraced NHS. He has not carried out the National Service Framework 1999 that had been promised by the labor government, so together they have failed to effectively implement the policies even though they have been in power considerably long. Their failures are also manifested further as the national frame work for mental health deadline expired last month and yet it still did not meet its targets. However the department of health announced a package of measures in January 2009 for the design and development of single sex accommodation within the health system. This will include a 100 million Privacy and haughtiness Fund for improvements and adjustments to accommodations. The new initiative came into effect as of April 2010 which was a vainglorious step in ensuring privacy needs of male a nd female patients are fully met.Still some changes have been made by the cardinal previous governments and their respective leaders (the Margaret Thatchers conservative party (1979) and Tony Blairs 1997 labor party), with regards to the implementations of the Mental Health Act 1983 the NHS and Community Care Act 1990, and the National Service Framework Act 1999. Even though it still appears that not much has been done to help especially members of the ethnic minority groups. There are still disparities in the way services are being distributed and how they are being treated as patients compared to their white counterparts. For example, they are discriminated againstmore and are more likely to be given higher dosages of anti-psychotic drugs or sometimes even put into seclusion.The Community Care Act 1990 was put in place mainly as a cost effective measure, thereby moving people with mental health issues out of hospitals into the community. However, some people are still not receivi ng the necessary care that was promised by the government, although to some extent they are being empowered by being further to be more proactive in their own assessment andcare plans. Of late these provisions are ineffective as they do not meet the required specification.The organization of health services concerned with mental problem was simple previously before the current NHS and social reforms came into play. The government was responsible of the NHS and controlled fund allocation, functionality, and supervision of these health services. Local government vie a very small role in the care for mentally ill individuals, there main was in housing and social work sustenance. Initially, it was the responsibility of sanatorium community divide.In the 1980s important reforms were made to both the NHS and social services. These reforms were largely aimed at changing the management arrangements for delivering general health care in the NHS and at reforming the community care of of ag e(p) people provided by social services. Little thought was apparently given to how the reforms would affect the care of mentally ill people. We believe that these changes, each of which on their own might have been valuable, have combined to damage provision of care, at least for severely mentally ill patients (Mathews, 2002).Mental health policy defines the vision for the future mental health of the population, specifying the framework which will be put in place to manage and prevent priority mental and neurological disorders.Therefore as shown in this paper the approach to the social policy on community care and mental health should focus on communal mental health problems and generate solutions for curb these predicaments. The primary aim of this policy is to identify the most useful and efficient measure to successfully address these issues. On other hand the saving of new policies in the mental health sector has totally alter mental community care provision. Simple systems have been replaced with complicated organizational and financial structures requiring almost impossible feats by local health and social service staff to coordinate care for patients to whom continuity of care is full of life for their survival in the community (Mathews, 2002). Critical mentally ill individuals are ensnared by these problematical issues. The formation of a community care part that is localized which is accountable for the issue at hand could be the best solution.