Committed to change
We live in a diverse society where each individual’s background, culture, and experiences shape their mental health journey.
Unfortunately, disparities in mental health access to care, outcomes for Black and marginalised communities have persisted for too long and leave many underserved and overlooked.
This Advancing Mental Health Equalities Plan is Rethink’s response to these inequities and a reflection of our commitment to meaningful change by tackling the barriers that prevent the equitable access to our mental health services by underserved communities.
At its core, our plan aims to:
- Further our commitment to advancing mental health equalities.
- Improve governance structures, to include better representation of racialised and marginalised people.
- Improve data collection around ethnicity and other demographics.
- Use our demographic data to coproduce plans to improve access to services and outcomes for racialised groups and make them publicly available.
- Act on feedback and provide timely updates to improve services to better meet our local population needs.
- Commit to improving interactions with racialised and marginalised people and partners.
Complementing NHS England's Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework
NHS England launched its anti-racism framework for mental health trusts and services, the Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF) in November 2023.
This is a core part of the Advancing Mental Health Equalities strategy aimed at improving services and support in mental health access, experience, and outcomes for people from racialised, marginalised and neurodiverse communities.
It also seeks to ensure equitable workplace practices which are psychologically safe with representation at all levels to reflect the diverse communities we serve.
All mental health trusts and mental health service providers must have their PCREF Plans in place by March 2025 and PCRE.
At Rethink Mental Illness we named our PCREF plan ‘Rethink Mental Illness: Advancing Mental Health Equalities Plan’ to reflect the language we use in relation to our equity, diversity and inclusion and involvement work.