Targeting in Mental Health Services: A Multi-disciplinary Challenge

This title was first published in 2000: This work has its origins in a three-year research project initially entitled, "Do SEMI Registers Make a Difference?" and known, for short, as the SEMI Register Project. The research project was designed to monitor and evaluate the introduction of registers for people with severe and enduring mental illness (SEMI) in general practices across the Wirral. In the context of this discussion, and within the framework of the mental health and social care reforms currently being introduced, key issues in the targeting agenda include: definitional issues surrounding the term "SEMI"; practical and methodological concerns about how people with SEMI are to be identified and targeted; interface issues relating to multi-disciplinary working between primary and secondary care; issues concerning the evidence-base for risk management policies and strategies; the role of training in effective targeting; reflection on the potential consequences of targeting policies and initiatives; and the meaningful involvement of service users from all sections of society.