A survey of patients placed on the supervision register in one mental health trust

Abstract

Mental health nurses, in common with other health care groups, are charged with monitoring the quality of care for severely mentally ill clients. It is now apparent that improving the social functioning of these clients is far more complex than was previously thought and demands better coordinated services. To improve services is especially challenging at a time when resources are diminishing and existing generic mental health services find themselves under severe pressure. The introduction of the Supervision Register (1994) was one response to a number of high profile incidents in the U.K. which suggested that greater collaboration between health services, social services and voluntary agencies needed to be sought. This study aimed to ascertain the characteristics of clients placed on the Register and the reactions of the mental health professionals who have to implement it. Although the majority of staff interviewed in the course of the study acknowledged that the Register served to highlight and perhaps potentiate the constituents of good practice, a number were concerned that in the absence of appropriate and sufficient community-based resources, procedural mechanisms such as the Supervision Register serve merely a cosmetic purpose.