New Mental Health Dementia and Neurology Intelligence Networks
PHE launches a new health intelligence network in partnership with NHS England, supported by the Department of Health and key stakeholders.
The National Mental Health Dementia and Neurology Intelligence Networks, consisting of 4 pilot profiling tools going live today (18 June 2014), will support the delivery of improved physical and mental wellbeing services in local areas and reduce the negative impacts of ill health.
The Networks operate collectively and will provide commissioners, local decision makers and other health professionals with authoritative intelligence, research and evidenced best practice using the PHE Fingertips platform. It provides indicators about risk factors, prevalence, access to services, outcomes and finance, and includes profiling tools looking at:
- common mental health disorders
- severe mental illness (including psychosis)
- community mental health profiles (updated from last year’s publication)
- neurology (emergency admissions and epilepsy)
Tools relating to children and young people’s mental health, co-existing mental health and addictions issues and dementia are under development and will go live at the end of the year.
Care and Support Minister, Norman Lamb, said:
Time and again we’ve seen that better information leads to better care. These Networks will be hugely important to help providers use data and intelligence in ways that will help improve services. It will also be an invaluable assistance to commissioners.
I am absolutely determined to make sure mental health care is on a par with physical health care. Our mental health action plan sets out 25 priorities for essential change to make this a reality - including a long overdue information revolution which these Networks will help spark. I look forward to seeing how this new, centralised information contributes to the progress we are making.
Professor John Newton, Chief Knowledge Officer at Public Health England, said:
The intelligence networks can achieve something truly remarkable by bringing together diverse information on important health issues such as these. Making all this data available in one place significantly increases the chance of it being used to improve health and wellbeing in communities across the country. It’s essential that this work is a true partnership as a wide range of people including clinicians, policy-makers, and carers have a contribution to make in helping to build these networks. A common understanding of the essential data and information is often the first step to developing joint solutions.
Dr Geraldine Strathdee, NHS England’s national clinical director for mental health, said:
I am absolutely delighted to be part of this launch and today marks the culmination of many years of partnership working between the thirteen national agencies that provide mental health information. This is just the very start of the mental health information revolution. NHSE strategic clinical networks and academic health science centres are now supporting the testing of the commissioning care pathway profiles in their localities and we will make changes in line with their feedback. This information is a core element in the curriculum of the CCG tele-health leadership programmes launching shortly.
More than 300 commissioners, clinical and academic experts, service users and quality improvement champions have generously contributed their time to produce this programme, and we are very grateful to them and their employers.
The MHDNIN is one of 5 health intelligence networks, with others including cancer, child and maternal health, cardiovascular disease, and end of life care.
Visit PHE’s data and knowledge gateway to access data and analysis tools from across the organisation.