5. The Mental Health and Substance Misuse Group
The aims of this report are:
- to improve the awareness of co-occurring mental health and substance misuse problems and
- to improve support and service provision for people who have both mental health and substance misuse problems.
Our goal is to enable individuals to improve their life chances or live to their potential.
The recommendations of the Group are broadly based but with a particular focus on service user experience. The principles apply beyond health and social care services into education, housing and criminal justice settings where there are important opportunities for identification and in some circumstances intervention.
The Group remit was to translate the principles and recommendations of Mind the Gaps and A Fuller Life reports into a series of practical measures and advice on action needed to move the joint agenda forward and support joined-up local delivery to improve the awareness, support and service provision for people who have both mental health and substance misuse problems by the end of 2007. This undertaking addresses commitment 13 made in Delivering for Mental Health.
Membership of the Group was drawn from both mental health and substance misuse backgrounds and services and placed the interests of service users and carers at the centre and whose interests were particularly represented though the Voices of Experience (VOX) and Al Anon representation on the Group. The full membership is attached at Annex A.