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Trust welcomes new
mental health taskforce report
TO support the national 5 Year
Forward View for the NHS in England, a new strategy specifically for mental
health was published on 15 February 2016, to drive mental health priorities.
2 key priority areas identified in the report are to reduce the amount of
people needing to go out of their local area to access care and crisis care.
Director of Operations for Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation
Trust (CEP), Andy Styring, says:-
"A focused strategy purely for mental health has been long awaited; I
welcome the opportunity to put mental health on a par with physical health.
We will look to continually raise the bar by learning from experience,
encouraging feedback and striving for excellent care that we would feel more
than happy for ourselves or loved ones to access should they need to."
CWP has introduced a new way of working to provide care closer to home for
some of the most vulnerable people in society.
Nationally, up to 1:7 acute admissions have to go out of areas due to no
local beds. The Trust found that 30% of adults accessing mental health
support in Hospital required a higher level of support than the standard
package of care, and this group of people were also more likely to be
inappropriately placed out of area away from their families.
Through the work of their Complex Recovery Assessment and Consultation Team
(CRAC), less than 10 people have gone out of area for acute care in the past
12 months and patients' average lengths of stay in hospital has been
significantly reduced. The CRAC Team is made up of a range of health
professionals with expertise in complex care management and provides
specialist support across the Trust for people with complex needs who
require frequent or prolonged acute inpatient treatment.
Clair Jones, CWP's Trustwide Strategic Lead for Complex Care says:-
"People with complex needs being the sole focus of one specialist team
ensures that they are in sight and in mind, that they have improved outcomes
such as shorter inpatient stays, fewer readmissions and certainty that best
use is made of available investment."
Together Western Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group (WCCCG) and CWP have
also developed a lead provider model for delivering mental healthcare
through an Integrated Provider Hub. CWP leads the 'Integrated Provider
Hub'
which brings together people and organisations to support people with mental
health conditions within the local area. The hub acts as a decision making
forum to provide bespoke packages of care for people within a defined budget
and criteria for mental health which includes financial, clinical, patient
and local community outcomes.
To improve crisis care and support people with mental health issues that
come into contact with the police, CWP has been working alongside Cheshire
Police to reduce Mental Health Act detentions by over 90%. As part of
Operation 'Street Triage' a team of mental health community nurses now
accompany dedicated Police Officers to:- 999 and 101 call outs to offer advice
and support. Over 1,600 referrals have been received, and without this
intervention, a further 247 incidents would have ended up in accident and
emergency services.
By working collaboratively, the aim is to help vulnerable people to receive
appropriate support and reduce the number of people being arrested under
section 136 of the Mental Health Act or being unnecessarily taken to
Hospital for treatment; easing pressure on Police and Hospital resources
and improving the lives of local communities.
The national strategy was developed by a mental health taskforce made up of
health and care leaders, people using services and experts in the field to
bring together personal experience, clinical and economic evidence.
Over 2,000 people provided their views to the taskforce to develop the 1st
strategic approach to improving mental health outcomes for people of all
ages in the health and social care system.
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