NICE is developing a public health guideline on Independence and mental wellbeing (including social and emotional wellbeing) for older people

All registered stakeholders for the above public health guideline are invited to comment on the provisional recommendations via this website during a 6 week consultation with stakeholders.

Organisations not registered as stakeholders are not able to comment.

How to register as a stakeholder

Please note - the provisional recommendations presented here do not constitute NICE’s formal guideline on this topic. The recommendations are provisional and may change after consultation.

This consultation will take place between 29 May and 10 July 2015

The draft guideline sets out the provisional recommendations that have been developed.

Please note - Comments forms with attachments such as research articles, letters or leaflets will not be accepted. If comments forms do have attachments they will be returned without being read. If the stakeholder resubmits the form without attachments, it must be by the consultation deadline.

Consultation Documents:

• Draft full guideline
• Economic model
• Evidence reviews
• Expert testimony
• Stakeholder comments form

Questions to consider in the consultation:

Registered stakeholders are invited to comment on the following questions which are specific to this guideline consultation.

Question 1 – impact and implementation challenges

Which areas will have the biggest impact on practice and be challenging to implement? Please say for whom and why.

Question 2 – overcoming challenges, good practice

What would help users overcome any challenges? (For example, existing practical resources or national initiatives, or examples of good practice.)

Question 3 – strength of singing recommendation

Do stakeholders agree with prominence given to the singing interventions in recommendation 2 in relation to the strength of the evidence of effectiveness and cost effectiveness and Committee considerations? Should singing programmes be identified as a key activity that should be offered or be placed as only one of a range of activities that could be offered in a locality to help maintain and improve the independence and mental wellbeing of older people?

See recommendation 2 and considerations 5.9–12 and 5.2–24 (economics).

Question 4 – interventions to raise awareness

Can stakeholders identify evidence for approaches or interventions that are effective in rising awareness of the importance of maintaining and improving older people’s independence and mental wellbeing among commissioners, service managers, health and social care practitioners, community workers and the voluntary sector?

See recommendation 9.

Question 5 – audience for recommendations

Are the appropriate audiences identified for each recommendation in the draft guideline (detailed in ‘Who should take action?’)? Are recommendations relevant for different audiences sufficiently clear and easy to find?

See recommendations 1–16 and section 2.

Following consultation, the final recommendations from this guideline will also appear in NICE’s pathway on mental wellbeing and older people. NICE Pathways bring together all related NICE guidance and associated products on a topic in an interactive topic-based flow chart. They can also help group recommendations for relevance to specific audiences.

Question 6 – programme level recommendations

Can stakeholders identify any more general, ‘programme level’ recommendations (potentially, the undertaking needs assessment recommendation, as an example) that may not be core to this specific topic and could be better covered elsewhere, either by NICE or another agency?

For example, see recommendation 7 ‘Strategy: carry out a local needs assessment’.

Points to consider in the consultation:

• Points or areas that are not covered, but which appear to fall within the scope of the guideline.
• Potential inconsistencies or any disagreement with the Public Health Advisory Committee’s interpretation of the evidence and its applicability.
• The practical value of the provisional recommendations.
• Issues of presentation and style, including how the provisional recommendations have been grouped and ordered.
• Whether the right organisations and individuals have been identified under ‘Who should take action’ for each recommendation.
• Do you think this guideline could be improved to better promote equality of opportunity relating to age, disability, gender, gender identity, ethnicity, religion and belief, sexual orientation or socio-economic status? If so, please include details of:
• Which particular parts of the guideline you think affect equality of opportunity.
• Why and how you think equality of opportunity is affected.
• In addition are there any reasons why any of the recommendations in the guideline may result in an increase in inequality of opportunity relating to age, disability, gender, gender identity, ethnicity, religion and belief, sexual orientation or socio-economic status?

How to submit your comments:

Please provide all responses to the draft guideline using the Stakeholder Comments Form (ensuring all relevant fields are completed, including your organisation's name). Please forward the form by 5pm, 10 July 2015 at the very latest to olderpeoplementalwellbeing@nice.org.uk

The Institute is unable to accept:

• More than one response per stakeholder organisation
• Comments received after the consultation deadline
• Comments that are not complete on a stakeholder comments form
• Confidential information or other material that you would not wish to be made public
• Comments forms with attachments such as research articles, letters or leaflets. If comments forms do have attachments they will be returned without being read. If the stakeholder resubmits the form without attachments, it must be by the consultation deadline.

What will happen to your comments?

• All comments (with the exception of personal, individual comments and late comments) will be sent to the project team at the end of the consultation
• Comments from registered stakeholders will be formally responded to by the project team and posted on the NICE website after the final guideline is published.
• No action will be taken upon receipt of personal, individual comments and late comments.

PLEASE NOTE: The Institute reserves the right to summarise and edit comments received during consultations, or not to publish them at all, where in the reasonable opinion of the Institute, the comments are voluminous, publication would be unlawful or publication would be otherwise inappropriate.

Supporting evidence:

The evidence statements were used by the Public Health Advisory Committee in developing the provisional recommendations.