A national charity has launched a ground-breaking project with a mental health Trust to improve schizophrenia care for patients in east London.

Rethink Mental Illness has teamed up with the East London NHS Foundation Trust to launch a project to improve services for people with schizophrenia and psychosis.

The Rethink Mental Illness Innovation Network, launched at the Houses of Commons, will see the Trust join with the charity to test new and innovative services for people affected by severe mental illness.

It will focus on issues like improving mental health hospital care, tackling physical health problems, and helping people with mental illness get into employment.

This follows a report last year from the charity’s Schizophrenia Commission, which revealed catastrophic failings in the state of care for people with schizophrenia and psychosis.

The new project hopes to transform mental health services for people in east London by putting some of the Commission’s recommendations into practice.

Jane Hughes, Rethink Mental Illness, said: “Last year the Schizophrenia Commission showed that care and treatment for patients is nowhere near good enough. It highlighted that people with schizophrenia are dying 15-20 years earlier than the general population and that only seven per cent are able to get a job.

“But by developing better services, we can transform people’s lives. We’ve launched the project with East London NHS Foundation Trust to help us find out what services work best for people with schizophrenia and psychosis, and to put them in place in the NHS. It could make a massive difference to people in east London who are affected by mental illness.”

Jonathan Warren, Director of Nursing at East London NHS Foundation Trust said: “East London NHS Foundation Trust is delighted to be joining with Rethink Mental Illness in this innovative partnership to find and develop unique approaches to improve the care of people with schizophrenia.”