NHS England guidance on acute inpatient mental health care for adults and older adults

NHS England have released new guidance in July 2023, to support the commissioning and delivery of timely access to high quality therapeutic inpatient mental health care, close to home and in the least restrictive setting possible. This is the first time that NHS England has published national policy guidance outlining its vision for inpatient mental health care for adults and older adults. It has been developed in partnership with frontline clinicians and people who have lived experience of accessing inpatient services (including carers).

In this guidance NHS England share their vision for effective care, with resources and suggestions to support delivery.

In this vision:

• Care is personalised
• Admissions are timely and purposeful
• Hospital stays are therapeutic
• Discharge is timely and effective
• Care is joined up across the health and care system
• Services actively identify and address inequalities
• Services grow and develop the acute inpatient mental health workforce in line with national workforce profiles
• There is continuous improvement of the inpatient pathway

Effective care across the inpatient pathway is explored, including a useful diagram showing the key elements of this, as well as key enablers of effective inpatient care.

For more information, please visit the NHS England website.