What is the Prescribing Observatory for Mental Health (POMH)?

The national Prescribing Observatory for Mental Health (POMH-UK) aims to help specialist mental health Trusts/healthcare organisations improve their prescribing practice. POMH-UK with its member organisations identifies specific topics within mental health prescribing and develops audit-based quality improvement programmes (QIPs).

Organisations are able to benchmark their performance against one another and identify where their prescribing practice meets nationally agreed standards and where it falls short. Wide participation in audits creates a picture of prescribing practice nationally.

POMH-UK was originally funded by a tapering grant from an independent charity, the Health Foundation under its ‘Engaging with Quality’ initiative. The project is now funded by subscriptions from member organisations. Neither POMH-UK nor the Health Foundation has any links with the pharmaceutical industry.