Academic lead: Amber Abisai
Aim and Objectives
The aim of the Patient and Carers Race Equality Framework (PCREF) is to improve the competency of mental health services so the experience of BAME patients and carers improves; to the end of making services more accessible, and to improve the health outcomes for BAME service users.
Background
Legislation such as the Equality Act 2010 (which includes the Public Sector Equality Duty), the Health and Social Care Act 2012, the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Care Act 2014 describe what services and organisations must do under the law. The Mental Health Act Review African and Caribbean and Asian and Minority Ethnic working group also produced recommendations which provided a steer on how to improve BAME access, experience and outcomes in mental health services. These include the development of the PCREF (which NHS England and NHS Improvement has accepted and is the focus of this project) and strengthening Local Authority-commissioned culturally appropriate advocacy, which is outside of scope for the PCREF.
Outcomes
The development of a tool (or suite of tools), called the ‘PCREF’, which when implemented, results in improved BAME patient and care experiences by eliminating racial disparities in mental health services.