Website of the Department of Health

What does a national director do?

My current activities include:

• Development of New Horizons policy, the new and reinvigorated vision to ensure we build on progress to date when the existing Mental Health National Service Framework runs out in 2009;
• Personal leadership on several programmes:
  - National Suicide Prevention Strategy;
  - Improving Access to Psychological Therapies
  - Risk Management
  - Delivering Race Equality
  - Improvement of the Mental Health Estate
  - Offender Mental Health
  - Dementia
• Giving advice to government ministers on all aspects of mental health, such as the relationship between cannabis and psychosis, the mental health of veterans, and services for personality disorder;
• Maintaining an active dialogue with the mental health field, including users and carers, clinical staff, leaders of local services and voluntary organisations;
• Visits to local services across England, especially in areas of innovative practice;
• Speaking at conferences on topics of policy priority;
• Attending regular meetings with professional, managerial and voluntary organisations including Royal Colleges and the NHS Confederation;
• Explaining Government policy to mental health stakeholders, including the general public through press interviews.