The Community Mental Health Framework for Adults and Older Adults

The Community Mental Health Framework for Adults and Older Adults: Support, Care and Treatment full guidance documents (NCCMH, 2021) were commissioned by NHS England to support the delivery of The NHS Long Term Plan.

They present the best available evidence and outline a new structure for providing integrated community-based mental health care. This new way of working will help more people receive higher-quality care when and where they need it. 

Rolling out the framework and eight key messages for 2021/22

The College has developed eight key messages on the Community Mental Health Framework (PDF). Clinicians can use these to help inform their work in community mental health care transformation. The College originally developed these messages in 2020, but has refreshed them for 2021 to help support clinical engagement in ongoing planning for the rollout of the framework.

"In light of the huge social and economic changes that have taken place in England over the past 18 months, I’m delighted that the NCCMH is now publishing the full documents for The Community Framework for Mental Health for Adults and Older Adults. People around the country are already using the NHS short guide to implement the framework – but these complete documents show the full rationale and evidence behind it.

The full framework documents are indispensable to anyone working in community mental health care, mapping out a clear standard of what good mental health care in the community can and, if done right, will be like."

Dr Adrian James
Former President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists

Download the framework documents

Part 1 – Setting out the framework

Part 1 defines the community and presents the case for change. It reframes the delivery, functions and commissioning of community mental health services as community-based support, care and treatment. It includes:

  • what we mean by community 
  • scope and aims of the framework
  • the impact of the community on mental health 
  • advancing mental health equality in the community
  • improving engagement with community assets
  • guidance on commissioning the framework.

Part 2 – The framework in practice

Part 2 contains practical guidance on how to apply the framework to community mental health services. It uses example personal histories and model communities to show how community mental health support, care and treatment can be delivered in line with the framework. It includes:

  • the core community mental health service
  • the framework applied to a community 
  • key stages of implementation
  • outcomes 
  • challenges and solutions.

Appendices

The appendices contain information on standards and quality of care. They include personal experiences of support, care and treatment, and describe services around England that deliver elements of care in line with the framework. There are summaries of the evidence reviews that informed the development of this work, and more information on how the framework was developed. 

The Community Mental Health Framework for Adults and Older Adults (short guide)

A summary version of the above documents, published by NHS England and NHS Improvement in 2019, with key information on how to implement the framework. 
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