Mental Illness (Hansard, 13 February 1995)

§ Mr. Alex Carlile
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of people registered as mentally ill in the community is assigned a key worker.
500W

§ Mr. Bowis
Mentally ill people in the community are not required to register with health or social services authorities or with any other agency. All patients subject to the care programme approach should have an identified key worker, but we do not require information on numbers of such patients to be submitted to the Department.

§ Mr. Alex Carlile
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what(a) guidelines or (b) rules her Department sets to ensure that people released from long-stay mental hospitals are given (i) social security advice, (ii) housing advice and (iii) financial advice.

§ Mr. Bowis
The "Mental Illness Key Area Handbook" advises health and local authorities that under the care programme approach, a systematic assessment of the health and social care needs of the patient should be undertaken prior to discharge. The assessment will include the person's housing and financial needs.

§ Mr. Alex Carlile
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many long-stay mental hospitals in(a) London, (b) Birmingham, and (c) Manchester are open; and how many have set closure plans.

§ Mr. Bowis
Information on all long-stay mental illness hospitals is not routinely collected. Details on the remaining large mental illness hospitals—with over 100 beds—including closure plans if any, were published in the mental health task force report, "Survey of English Mental Illness Hospitals, March 1993", copies of which are available in the Library.

§ Mr. Alex Carlile
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people in(a) London, (b) Birmingham, and (c) Manchester are registered with health authorities as mentally ill in the community.

§ Mr. Bowis
Mentally ill people living in the community are not required to register with health authorities. National health service agencies will generally only hold details of those people in contact with specialist services and we do not require this information to be submitted to the Department.