Integrated approaches to mental health care

Developing integrated approaches to mental health is a key priority in England. Mental health care is often disconnected from the wider health and care system, and as a result, people do not always receive co-ordinated support for their physical health, mental health and wider social needs. Our work on this topic explores what a more joined-up approach would look like, and supports organisations seeking to put this vision into practice.

Reports

Mental health and new models of care: lessons from the vanguards

This report argues that new care models and vanguards need to make more of opportunities to improve care through integrated approaches to mental health.

Integrating mental and physical health

Bringing together physical and mental health: A new frontier for integrated care

Our report looks at the integration of physical and mental health. The authors discuss 10 areas that offer some of the biggest opportunities for improving quality and controlling costs.

Long-term conditions and mental health: The cost of co-morbidities

Our report, published jointly with Centre for Mental Health, reviews the evidence on the interaction between mental health and long-term physical health conditions and offers examples of innovative practice to combat the problems associated with co-existing conditions.

Blogs

Mental health and general practice: intertwined futures

Chris Naylor considers the prospects for better integration of mental health care with general practice.

Living with a long-term condition: the importance of psychological support

In a guest blog to coincide with the launch of our report on integrating physical and mental health care, Tessa Jelen writes about the importance of information and support.

Get mental health right and we can get the whole system right

Alongside the launch of our report on mental health and new models of care, Chris Naylor explores some of the benefits of investing in mental health.

Doing justice to mental health in STPs

Chris Naylor looks at whether mental health is being considered carefully enough in the development of sustainability and transformation plans.

Past events

The role of housing in accelerating discharge from mental health care services

Mental health in primary care

Joining up physical and mental health care: Time to deliver for patients and service users

Further resources

Integrating physical and mental health: resources from our learning network

25 local areas from across England took part in our learning network on integrating mental and physical health care, which provided a platform for sharing ideas and exploring how practical barriers to integration can be overcome. This page pulls together a selection of the presentations given at network meetings.

Integrated approaches to mental health

A selected list of references held by The King's Fund library.

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The NHS long-term plan explained

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Integrating physical and mental health: resources from our learning network

25 local areas from across England took part in our learning network on integrating mental and physical health care, which provided a platform for sharing ideas and exploring how practical barriers to integration can be overcome. This page pulls together a selection of the presentations given at network meetings.

Physical health checks for people with severe mental illness

People with a severe mental illness die 15 to 20 years earlier than the general population, mainly from natural causes such as cardiovascular disease, endocrine disorder and respiratory failure. In the vast majority of cases, these early deaths could be avoided through timely diagnosis and treatment.

Chris Naylor: Integrating mental health into STPs

Chris Naylor discusses the extent to which opportunities for mental and physical health integration is being realised in the vanguard sites.