Angela Hassiotis: Integrated services would develop the right local services

Angela Hassiotis: More specific and integrated services would better support people's resettlement in the right local services
Professor Angela Hassiotis of University College London, and Consultant Psychiatrist at the NHS Camden Learning Disability Service, interviewed at a BILD PBS Conference. "PBS isn't new, in other forms its been there for some time. We should try and prove that it works, that specific elements work better than others, that it is better than doing nothing. If we don't do that it will remain just another initiative. Developing the evidence base will ensure it becomes a sustained approach, which has greater potential to be more powerful and lasting.
We need to develop comparative evidence of the impact of different service models in helping find the best structured support for people with intellectual disabilities.
The first Mansell Report was in 1993, the first peripatetic teams were in the 80s, but we're still struggling in this area - out of 154 areas in England with community intellectual disability teams, less than half have specialist teams in one format or another.
If services were more specific and integrated, it could support a more targeted approach - pooling budgets, for example - to people's resettlement in the right local services.