Agenda item

This report sets out the background to the development of North West London Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy Case for Change, as part of the Like Minded Programme.

The Board received a report on the North West London Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy Case for Change, as part of the Like Minded Programme.

Mr Mallinson stated that  Healthwatch’s observations were that many patients fell between services and felt isolated and that no-one was listening. In some cases the partnership between the various services was not working well. For a number of years, some patients had not attended appointments, maybe because of the transition between adults and children’s services.

Ms Wyllie responded that the ethos in respect of people’s wellbeing was to improve self- management and to raise awareness of mental health facilities. New high quality services would be developed in the community, with care focused on community based support. A local model  of care and support would be developed which best fitted the needs of the local population, and linked to other boroughs and voluntary organisations.

Eight major issues had been identified and submitted to the Transformation Board, one of which was the redesign of child and adolescent mental health services.

Mr Lawry queried engagement with the voluntary sector. Ms Wyllie responded that there had been some engagement, and specifically with Mind and through the CCGs. Mr Lawry stated that Sobus would be happy to offer support.

Mr Lawry commented that there was a need to balance the resources allocated for services and the preventative agenda. Ms Wyllie referred to the six work streams, which had been prioritised by the programme. ‘Wellbeing and prevention’ included the two priorities of workplace wellbeing interventions and prevention of conduct disorder.

Councillor Vaughan queried what could be done, in a Hammersmith & Fulham context, to promote a broader understanding of mental health needs, change attitudes and link with any national work. Ms Wyllie responded that there was not a specific programme, but this work was most likely to sit within work area three ‘Common mental health needs’ or even two, ‘Serious and long term mental health needs’, However, the issue was wider than North West London.

Mr Lawry stated that voluntary organisations would help people access the right support at the right time, and that there was a good spread of such organisations throughout Hammersmith & Fulham.

Mrs Wright-Turner referred to the Children and Young People’s work and queried: the extent to which Hammersmith & Fulham would be able to influence the balance between development of local and sector services; whether the £741,000 was Hammersmith specific; and the extent to which existing resources and service redesign had been considered.

Ms Wyllie responded that the objective of priority 5, ‘Existing projects’ was to take a Whole Systems view and rethink CAMHs.

Mrs Bruce stated that there was a need to translate to local level from NWL Transformation Board level, with the exception of the very acute end. Dr Spicer responded that whilst there was a need for a specialist body, anything which could be delivered locally would be.

Councillor Lukey considered that raising standards of GPs not committed to dealing with mental health problems, was more problematic if GPs were gatekeepers of mental health referrals. The patient pathway needed to be made easier. There were difficulties in getting a GP appointment and a GP having  enough time to make a proper assessment. People with long term conditions tended not to accept that there was anything wrong with them. There was  a need for GPs to make home visits, rather than tell people to go to the surgery.

Dr Spicer stated that domestic assessments for urgent care were being introduced from April 2016.

Ms Wyllie stated that work stream 6 ‘Enablers’ would consider workforce, in addition to estates and finance. Workforce shortages would be considered and linked to training opportunities for primary care staff.

Ms Cree updated on information sharing in respect of patients with serious mental illness elements, between GPs from neighbouring practices and network localities. A new model of urgent care around a single point of access would be implemented from January, bringing about significant improvements for patients presenting at Accident & Emergency Departments.

Some additional money had been allocated for specialist psychiatric liaison services to  support people presenting at St. Charles Hospital. The money would be spent on additional staff and training.

RESOLVED THAT:

1.    The report be noted.

2.    The Board endorsed the overall approach outlined in the Like Minded Case for Change.