| Mental health trust | |
|---|---|
 Birmingham & Solihull Mental Health Trust, Treatment Suite The new psychiatric unit that has replaced the one displaced by the University Hospital's new super hospital. This latter is now approaching completion (at least externally) as of October 2009. | |
| Region served | United Kingdom |
A mental health trust provides health and social care services for people with mental health disorders in England.[1]
There are 54 mental health trusts. They are commissioned and funded by clinical commissioning groups.
Patients usually access the services of mental health trusts through their GP (primary care medical doctor) or via a stay in hospital. Most of the services are for people who live in the region, although there may be specialist services for the whole of the UK or services that accept national referrals. Mental Health Trusts may or may not provide inpatient psychiatric hospital services themselves (they may form part of a general hospital run by a hospital trust). The various trusts work together and with local authorities and voluntary organisations to provide care.