Co-ordinating care between psychiatric services would reduce the burden on the services (who are often having to repeat work that others have done) and on their often vulnerable patients. Psychiatric services are already underfunded and under-resourced, and it is often hard for those who are managing to hold their lives together, to access the treatment they need. This extra burden needs to go for the good of both patients and service providers.
Joined up services will improve outcomes, and ensure that past treatment is maximised (rather then repeated). There should be online access for all service providers to the individual patient records maintained by other service users, with the patient also having online access so that the accuracy of the record can be assured. Patient engagement in own health ensures better outcomes?
At the moment, changing boroughs means potentially getting lost in the system, meaning that vulnerable and often insecurely-housed (and therefore more likely to move) people - sometimes the least able to manage paperwork and appointments - are left without care, or needing to go through entire processes (including diagnosis and referrals) from scratch.
This content is created by the open source Your Priorities citizen engagement platform designed by the non profit Citizens Foundation