Community organisations' expectations of mental health statutory services

Objective: Community organisations provide care for psychiatric patients at multiple levels. With increasing emphasis on joint planning and purchasing of care it is important to ascertain the views of such organisations towards statutory organisations and services the latter provide. Method: All community organisations working within one inner city catchment area in London were approached in order to obtain their views and experiences on the mental health services provided by the secondary care services. This was a postal survey and non-responders were contacted by personal calls. Results: Sixty organisations out of a total of 100 in the database responded. More than half had experiences of statutory services and these were generally negative. The services provided were perceived as being rigid and inflexible. A large majority of the organisations wished services to be more flexible as well as provide more training for voluntary organisations. Conclusion: The survey suggests that the perceptions of the statutory services and co-working with voluntary organisations can succeed only if the two groups work together closely to make good quality community care possible.