ࡱ>  ܥhc e` lllllll  DX2.l llll)llllDeveloping National Occupational Standards in Mental Health For approximately one year, Skills for Health, the body responsible for setting national occupational standards in the health care sector, has been working to produce standards of occupational competence, based on best practice in mental health. This work has been carried out in response to the National Service Frameworks in mental health, by the Government Departments of the four UK nations and others, including all relevant professional bodies. The standards will provide a framework to improve the competence of the workforce so as to provide better services to individuals with mental health needs and their carers, and offer a framework and a common language for discussion of practice expectations across the mental health field. They can be used by individuals and organisations alike, in any service setting from primary care to rehabilitation, to set targets, monitor performance and develop essential skills and understanding. They could also be used for skill mix purposes, to enable employers to change, develop and extend staff roles. A key role for the standards will be to support clear communication and effective collaboration within and between multi-disciplinary teams and as service users move into, from and between service provision. Dr Richard Maxwell from Bristol is now the RCGP representative for this project and may be contacted through the College. Drafts of these standards are nearing completion and will be made available for consultation in the period December 2002 - January 2003. The standards have been developed with input from a wide range of practitioners and from service users but, if they are to be of full use to GPs, Trust Directors and other employers in the mental health context, it is imperative that they are carefully and widely considered during this consultation process. To that end, the standards will be made available on the Skills for Health website (www.skillsforhealth.org.uk) and sent to representative organisations across the UK for comment. In addition, the opportunities the standards offer to improve competence and service will be discussed at events to be held around the UK during January 2003. These events will give an overview of the new standards and their uses and should be of interest to everyone concerned with mental health service provision. The events are structures so that the mornings give a broad overview while the afternoons deal with themes covered by the standards and the uses of standards in practice. Delegates can attend for the morning or afternoon session only, or for the full day, according to their interests. The locations and dates of events are shown in the table below. If you might be interested in attending an event, the project team can be contacted via Candace Miller and Dawn Allen on 01782 710158 or by email at MillerWestLtd@aol.com. If you get in touch, they will be very happy to supply further details and to register you for the event of your choice. Venue Date Guys Hospital, LONDON 9th Januaury 2003 Royal Agricultural Centre, Builth Wells, WALES 14th and 15th January 2003 Brighton General Hospital, BRIGHTON 15th January 2003 Solihull Hospital, SOLIHULL 20th January 2003 Kingsway Hospital, DERBY 21st January 2003 Wythenshaw Hospital, nr MANCHESTER 23rd January 2003 Skills for Health Offices, BRISTOL 23rd January 2003 Stobhill Hospital, GLASGOW 27th and 28th January 2003 .A;-   KMTV UWu]ch]^c ]a c] ]a bc]cU]c "<=- d.exx x&)')()))/0K@Normal]a "A@"Default Paragraph Font   @DTimes New Roman Symbol "Arial"Arial Narrow"hkkfrk; .For approximately one year, Skills for Health, the body responsible for setting national occupational standards in the health care sector, has been working to produce standards of occupational competence, based on best practice in mental health MWLSysAdminNEC Computers International Root Entry F)WordDocument`CompObjjSummaryInformation(  FMicrosoft Word Document MSWordDocWord.Document.89qOh+'0  @ L X dpxFor approximately one year, Skills for Health, the body responsible for setting national occupational standards in the health care sector, has been working to produce sDocumentSummaryInformation8   FMicrosoft Word Document MSWordDocWord.Document.89qMiller west Ltd For approximately one year, Skills for Health, the body responsible for setting national occupational standards in the health care sector, has been working to produce standards of occupational competence, based on best practice in mental healthtandards of occupational competence, based on best practice in mental health MWLSysAdminuNormalNEC Computers International2knMicrosoft Word for Windows 95@F#@L;@hA@hA; ՜.+,0@H`h px Miller west Ltd For approximately one year, Skills for Health, the body responsible for setting national occupational standards in the health care sector, has been working to produce standards of occupational competence, based on best practice in mental health