National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health

The National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (NCCMH) is one of several centres of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) tasked with developing guidance on the appropriate treatment and care of people with specific conditions within the National Health Service (NHS) in England and Wales. Established in 2001, the NCCMH is responsible for developing mental health guidelines for the treatment and care of mental disorders, and is run by a partnership between the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the British Psychological Society. The NCCMH staff comprises a multi-disciplinary team of systematic reviewers, health economists, an information scientist, research assistants, guideline development managers, and administrative staff.[1]

For each guideline the NCCMH establishes a Guideline Development Group, consisting of health and social care professionals, lay representatives, and technical experts. The Group then develops each guideline by assessing the available evidence and deriving from it a series of clinical recommendations. There are then two consultation periods in which stakeholder organisations are able to comment on the draft guideline. The Group then finalises the recommendations and the National Collaborating Centre produces the final guideline. This is submitted to NICE who then formally approve the guideline and issues the guidance to the NHS.

The guidelines provide recommendations for good practice by healthcare professionals. The guidelines are also intended to help patients make informed decisions, to improve communication between the patient and healthcare professional, and to raise the profile of research work. They are generally provided in a full-length version and in various simplified formats for different purposes and audiences. NCCMH has produced guidelines on: Schizophrenia, Eating Disorders, Depression, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, Dementia, Substance misuse, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, Antisocial Personality Disorder, Antenatal and Postnatal Mental Health (e.g. Postpartum depression).[2]

The NCCMH is hosted in centres within the two lead organisations - the College Research and Training Unit (CRTU) within the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Centre for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (CORE) within the British Psychological Society.

The NCCMH has a management board consisting of two co-Directors and senior representatives from both the RCPsych and the BPS, plus an advisory group of representatives of national professional and service user organisations and two academic centres.[3]

See also

• National Mental Health Development Unit
• National Institute for Health Research
• NHS mental health services trust