Our work priorities are changing

3 March 2006

The Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health is beginning a significant adjustment of its work towards specific areas where it can make an increased difference to improving the quality of life of those with mental health problems.

For the past ten years, SCMH has been at the centre of developing and helping to implement the National Service Framework for Mental Health. This has been important work and will continue to be a major priority for mental health services.

From this year, our work will be focused on two priority areas. One will concern all aspects of mental health in relation to employment - getting into work and sustaining employment - and tackling the high rate of worklessness among people with mental health problems.

The other will be to improve the quality of mental health care in prisons and for people in custody in the UK. Our future work will be toward making an assessable difference in these areas where people with mental health problems are facing great obstacles to a good quality of life and where public services need much support.

Over the next year, SCMH will change considerably to amplify its impact in these areas. What will not change is the way we work, through high quality, independent research, analysis and development.

We will continue to work to influence policy and improve practice in public services, but with a renewed mission to make radical change where we believe we can make the biggest impact with the resources available to us.

This will inevitably mean that we will no longer be able to work in many other areas of mental health practice.

We are proud of the work we have done over the past 20 years and we are confident of its future, but as an independent charity we believe it is time for us to move to new challenges and hopefully to achieve as much in those areas as we have in the work we have done to date.