The Association Joins Equally Well UK as Founder Member

Association of Mental Health Providers is delighted to have been invited to become a founder member of a new collaborative to improve physical health support for people with a mental illness, Equally Well UK.

Based on a similar campaign in New Zealand, Equally Well UK will bring together organisations in the UK with a part to play in reducing the 15-20 year mortality gap among people with a severe mental illness. It will create a new collaborative movement to bring about the step change that is needed to ensure equal health support is offered to anyone living with a mental illness. We will bring together charities, user and carer led organisations, professional bodies, service providers and commissioners, training and education providers and others working in both mental and physical health to co-produce Equally Well UK and agree a Charter for Equal Health.

Centre for Mental Health, Kaleidoscope Health and Care and Rethink Mental Illness launched the new initiative in collaboration with more than 20 professional organisations, charities and health service bodies across the country. The initiative has also already secured the support, among others, of the Royal College of GPs, NHS England, Health Education England, and the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Any organisation that supports the physical health of people with a mental illness can become a member of Equally Well UK. That includes national and local health service providers and commissioners, charities, professional bodies, training and education providers and many more.

Organisations joining Equally Well UK will be asked to make a pledge for how they will do their part to reduce the health gap. And in September, members will come together to produce a Charter for Equal Health to demonstrate their commitment to bringing about lasting change.

Founding members

• 2gether NHS Foundation Trust
• Action on Smoking and Health
• Association of Mental Health Providers
• Care Quality Commission
• Centre for Mental Health
• Health Education England
• Kaleidoscope Health and Care
• Mental Health Nurses Association
• Mind
• National Elf Service
• National Survivor and User Network
• NHS England
• NHS Improvement
• Public Health England
• Rethink Mental Illness
• The Richmond Group of Charities
• Royal College of General Practitioners
• Royal College of Nursing
• Royal College of Physicians
• Royal College of Psychiatrists
• Royal Pharmaceutical Society
• Royal College of Pathologists
• Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
• West London Mental Health NHS Trust

Follow Equally Well UK on Twitter @EquallyWellUK