A SURVEY OF PATIENTS PLACED ON THE SUPERVISION REGISTER IN ONE MENTAL-HEALTH TRUST

Mental health nurses, in common with other health care groups, are cha rged with monitoring the quality of care for severely mentally ill cli ents. It is now apparent that improving the social functioning of thes e clients is far more complex than was previously thought and demands better coordinated services. To improve services is especially challen ging at a time when resources are diminishing and existing generic men tal health services find themselves under severe pressure. The introdu ction of the Supervision Register (1994) was one response to a number of high profile incidents in the U.K. which suggested that greater col laboration between health services, social services and voluntary agen cies needed to be sought. This study aimed to ascertain the characteri stics of clients placed on the Register and the reactions of the menta l health professionals who have to implement it. Although the majority of staff interviewed in the course of the study acknowledged that the Register served to highlight and perhaps potentiate the constituents of good practice, a number were concerned that in the absence of appro priate and sufficient community-based resources, procedural mechanisms such as the Supervision Register serve merely a cosmetic purpose. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.