The Chief Scientist reports.... Voluntary agency support for people with mental health problems.

The development of a cohesive support system is vital to the success of community based services and day care is an essential component of any system of support. McCreadie et al in a Scottish study of psychiatric hospital provision showed that while there was wide variation around Scotland in the provision of hospital based care, there was a general dearth of health service and local authority community-based services. Philip and Stuckey in a survey of NHS long term non-resident patients of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital found that hospital staff felt that such patients would have benefited from additional daytime activity different from that provided in the health service. These authors found that some patients did make significant use of voluntary agencies, but were unable to elicit any systematic reasons for using or not using these agencies. Surveys in the statutory and voluntary sectors completed to date have tended to concentrate on the opinions of staff groups about the requirements and needs of clients. There has been no systematic survey of the facilities and opportunities most desired by users of voluntary sector support agencies. This survey, which received support from the Chief Scientist Organisation Mini-Project Scheme, aims to remedy this lack and to provide a factual basis from which the NHS, local authorities and voluntary agencies can draw, in their mutual aim of helping people with mental health problems. The results of the survey, while carried out in Edinburgh, may have relevance to planners and providers further afield in Scotland.