The 2008 survey of community mental health services

The fifth survey of its kind included 68 NHS trusts that provide secondary mental health services (including combined mental health and social care trusts, and primary care trusts that provide mental health services). Secondary mental health services provide care to people in psychiatric outpatient clinics or through a local community mental health team.

More than 14,000 service users took part in the survey, which is a response rate of 35%.

Key findings 

• The percentage of service users who were told who their care coordinator is continued to increase - up from 71% in 2007 to 74% in 2008.
• A greater proportion of service users reported that they had received a written copy of their care plan - up to 59% in 2008 from 55% in 2007.
• A 2% increase in the percentage of service users who had a care review in the last 12 months - from 53% in 2007.
• The figures for psychiatrists "definitely" listening carefully had improved: up from 71% in 2007 to 72%.
• There were similar improvements for service users having trust and confidence in the psychiatrist - up 1% to 63%.
• The proportion who said that they "definitely" had a say in decisions about medication has also improved in recent years, from 40% in 2004 to 43% in 2007 and 44% in 2008.  
• A 3% increase in service users who had a number for someone from NHS mental health services that they could contact out of office hours (52% in 2007).

Areas for improvement 

• A total of 24% of service users had not been involved in deciding what was in their care plan.
• Eleven percent of service users did not find their care review helpful and 5% reported that they had not been given a chance to express their views at their care review.
• In 2008 16% of service users said their diagnosis had not been discussed with them.
• A large proportion of service users (43%) reported that at least one of their appointments with a psychiatrist in the past 12 months had been cancelled or changed to a later date.
• Of service users who did not receive counselling, almost a third (32%) said they would have liked to have counselling sessions. 
• Just below one-third (32%) of service users who had been given new prescriptions said that they had not been told about the possible side effects, although this proportion has been falling (35% in 2004 and 2005, 34% in 2006 and 33% in 2007).

More information

Find out how your local mental health trust scored

In-depth information about this survey

2007 survey

For information about our 2007 survey of community mental health services, visit our Publications library.

2006 survey

For information about our 2006 survey of community mental health services, visit our Publications library.