Social care services

We've designed a template letter to send Jeremy Hunt and your MP. Take action today. 

• What is social care?
• What are we doing about it?
• How can I get involved?

What is social care?

Having a mental health problem can affect every aspect of life and make it difficult for people to engage in work, family, education and social activities.

Social care is about providing practical support to help people to live lives that are as independent and fulfilling as possible, and should work alongside medical treatment.

There are a huge range of different social care services available; these can help with things like:

• Preparing meals
• Dressing, washing and personal care
• Managing bills, benefits or other administrative tasks
• Shopping
• Companionship and social activities
• Accompanying to appointments

Social care services are for adults of all ages, not just older people, and can take place in your home, in a residential setting or somewhere else in the community. They can help to rebuild an independent life after a hospital stay or provide extra help to support people feeling overwhelmed and alone. 

It just enables me to cope really and get into some kind of system in the flat and my daily life… It keeps me at home longer in the community than would ordinarily be the case.

Unfortunately, lots of people with mental health problems are never properly assessed to see if they need social care services. Of those that are assessed, many are told that they are not eligible for support because of the high thresholds set locally. This means that people are missing out on crucial support services. Social care services are also generally underfunded, so it’s getting even harder to access the care that people need.

See our information on community based mental health and social care.

What are we doing about it? 

The current social care system is chronically underfunded, leaving thousands of people without the care and support they need. People with mental health problems often find it extremely difficult to get access to social care services, such as someone to help with administrative or household tasks, someone to help with washing, dressing, or cooking, or something meaningful to do with the day.

In April and May the Government will be making its final spending decisions for the 2013 – 15. Mind and the Care and Support Alliance (a coalition of charities working on social care) need your help to put pressure on the Government, to ensure it allocates enough money to improve social care, so that everyone can get the support they need. Given the economic climate it will be easy for the Government to shy away from making tough decisions about social care, but we hope that if enough people write to Jeremy Hunt MP, the Secretary of State for Health, and to their own MPs, the Government will be forced to act. 

We've designed a template letter to send Jeremy Hunt and your MP. Take action today. 

Previous work on social care

Last year the Government set out their plans to reform social care services in England and Wales. They published a White Paper setting out their vision for social care and a draft Bill outlining their plans for changing the law.

Mind consulted with people who have used social care to manage a mental health problem and used this to inform a joint response to the Government’s plans from a group of mental health organisations and another from the Care and Support Alliance, a group of over 50 organisations that support people with disabilities and older people.

We have also been engaging directly with the team working on social care reform in the Government and recently organised two events with Rethink Mental Illness for our members to meet the civil servants and discuss changes they'd like to see made to the system. Read a summary of the event and our recommendations for change. 

We will continue to campaign for fair, accessible and affordable social care for everyone who needs it. 

Social care reform has been on the Government agenda for many years. Below are some of the other ways that Mind has been trying to achieve change.

• We responded to Transparency in Outcomes in Social Care 2011, looking at how good social care services should be measured. Read our response.
• We wrote a recommendation for The Dilnot Commission's review of the future of funding for care and support, including how to address social care costs. Read our      recommendations and the Government's response. We are still waiting for further action on long-term funding reform.
• We took part in a joint project about personal budgets with the University of Bristol looking at how people can get choice and control over their mental health services. Find out more about the project or take a look at our quick guide to the terminology.

How can I get involved?

• Sign up to be a Mind campaigner so that we can keep you updated about how you can get involved in our work to improve social care for people with mental health problems.
• If you have experience of using social care to manage a mental health problem and would like to share this with us to inform our work, please email Helen in the Policy and Campaigns team.

Stay up to date with our campaigns and how you can get involved, become a Mind campaigner today.