The Community Mental Health Framework for Adults and Older Adults (CMHF) model means that NHS community mental health services are likely to be developed in line with community-led social work models that are working to a strength-based model of personalised support under the Care Act.
The framework describes how the NHS Long Term Plan’s vision for a place-based, community mental health model can be realised and how community services should modernise to offer whole-person, whole-population health approaches, aligned with the new Primary Care Networks.
The (CMHF) framework allows for a shift to a new model of community mental health provision, designed on an asset-based view of communities and integrated working across agencies, rather than a traditional Community Mental Health Team (CMHT) model.
At the core of the framework is the idea that primary care, secondary care, specialist care, social care, housing, voluntary sector and commissioned providers should work together in a seamless way, with people who use services at the centre of service provision and much more involved in their own care and support.
CMHF and social workers
In the past, local authorities have placed social workers within integrated teams under NHS control as the best way of delivering joined-up services. This model has not always been successful and local authorities are now developing new models of provision that are focused on personalised care and support planning based on Care Act principles.
The publication of the CMHF, alongside the recent NHS commitment to personal health budgets, will give health and social care commissioners the opportunity to develop new models of integrated community mental health working.