Standards for integrated care pathways for mental health -
adult and older adult services
About the standards
The integrated care pathways (ICPs) for mental health standards
have four main elements.
- Process standards: describe the key tasks which affect how well
ICPs are developed in a local area.
- Generic care standards: describe the interactions and
interventions that must be offered to all people who access mental
health services.
- Condition-specific care standards: build on the generic care
standards and describe the interactions and interventions that must
be offered by mental health services to people with a specific
condition.
- Service improvement standards: measure how ICPs are implemented
and how variations from planned care are recorded and acted
on.
The standards for the five conditions build on and complement
the key components identified in the generic care standards.
Considered alongside the process and service improvement standards,
the condition-specific care standards outline a set of expectations
for the local management and organisation of care in mental health
services. Equally, the standards represent an ongoing commitment to
improving the quality of treatment and outcomes for service users
and their informal carers.
As part of a wider system of continuous quality improvement, the
generic and condition-specific care standards form the care
elements of the ICP.
Published Date: 18 December 2007
