Janssen to support NHS social network for mental health care

Janssen is allying with the NHS Confederation Mental Health Network to launch a new social networking programme for use by GP commissioners in the UK.

The service will be free to join for 12 months and is designed to provide medical staff with the latest policy information and evidence-based approaches, while allowing them to share best practice guidance.

It will also help users to organise face-to-face meetings in which they can discuss how to go about improving mental health commissioning services, at a time when GPs are set to receive more responsibility in this regard.

The launch of the new online service is accompanied by the release of a fact sheet that lays out the scope of the challenge faced by new GP commissioners under the new NHS reforms.

Isabel Laas, business unit director at Janssen, said: "This partnership is a fantastic opportunity to help GPs optimise the way in which people affected by mental illness are managed by the NHS."

This comes after the company announced a new initiative earlier this month to support the International Mental Health Research Organization's new brain disorder research programme.