Mental Welfare Commission releases report on 2018 local visit outcomes
Publication date: 18 Jul, 2019
The Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland has released a new report about the recommendations it made on its local visits to hospital wards, units and prisons in 2018.
In 2018 the Commission carried out 107 of these local visits, an increase from 101 visits in 2017. The majority of these visits are announced, with an aim of at least 25 percent of visits being unannounced.
The highest number of visits were to NHS wards for adult acute mental health, at 33%.
After each visit, the Commission publishes a report. Most of these reports contain recommendations for improvement, and service managers generally have three months to respond to the recommendations. From the 107 separate visits in the year, the Commission made 278 recommendations for improvement in 2018.
The largest number of recommendations related to care planning, review, and person-centred care, at 28%.
The environment in which people were being treated was the second highest reason for a recommendation for improvement, at 14%.
Alison Thomson, executive director (nursing) at the Commission, said:
"Once again, care planning has been the most common subject for recommendations for improvement.
"Care plans are a crucial part of supporting a person when they are unwell. A good care plan is written with the involvement of the patient, to ensure their needs and aspirations have been taken into account. Such a plan is about the individual, not just his or her symptoms.
"Care plans vary in how well they do this, and because of that we will be publishing a new good practice guide on this subject in the coming months."
Twelve per cent of the Commission's recommendations related to the use of mental health legislation - an increase of six per cent on the previous year. Most of these recommendations related to documentation and consent to treatment provisions of the Mental Health Act.