It’s Mental Health Awareness Week so the perfect time for us to share another update on Community Mental Health Transformation.
Since our last update in March, we’ve made more progress including:
- Establishing the first Locality Community Partnership, in the Forest of Dean (more below)
- Progressing work on introducing the new assessment model – DIALOG
- Providing mental health crisis training to more VCS representatives across the county (more below)
- Organising more engagement events, taking place in June (more below)
- Good progress is being made on improving the uptake of physical health checks for people on the Serious Mental Illness register. Our latest figures show that 55% of people on the SMI register have now received a physical health check, whereas at the start of the programme this stood at 3.9%. We are recruiting more staff in order to improve our performance on this further.
Finally, Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust is starting work on reviewing its Assessment and Care Management Policy. This work, which will involve Experts by Experience, will review how the Trust supports people who use mental health services considering their individual diverse roles and needs; including family, housing, employment, leisure and spirituality, with the aim of optimising physical and mental well-being and personalising care.
Locality Community Partnerships
We’ve held the first five Locality Community Partnership (LCP) meetings in the Forest of Dean.
LCPs bring together all those in the community who might be able to help someone with their care. The LCP will ensure people get the right service and support based on what the person wants and needs.
How are people referred into the LCP?
Referrals can be from anyone who is working with or supporting the person. This might include mental health or social care professionals, a GP, a housing officer, or someone from another statutory or voluntary service.
What support might the LCP provide?
This will depend on what the person wants. They will have completed an assessment prior to the LCP meeting and will be asked what changes they would like to make and what would help them. Whether it’s help with housing, employment, mental health, loneliness, drug and alcohol issues, education, physical health, personal safety or anything related, the LCP will recommend the best way forward and provide ongoing oversight and support.
Join us at an Engagement Event
We’re holding engagement events across the county, for you to hear more about mental health transformation and to get involved in shaping the programme.
You can book on to any of the events as follows:
Cheltenham events
- Tuesday 6 June from 1 until 5pm at the Pavilion, in Cheltenham. Book here: Community Mental Health Transformation Engagement (Cheltenham – Face2Face) Tickets, Tue 6 Jun 2023 at 13:00 | Eventbrite
- Thursday 8 June from 1.30 until 4.30pm online via MS Teams. Book here: Community Mental Health Transformation Engagement (Cheltenham – Virtual) Tickets, Thu 8 Jun 2023 at 13:30 | Eventbrite
Gloucester events
- Tuesday 13 June from 1.30 until 5pm at the Farmers Club, in Gloucester. Book here: Community Mental Health Transformation Engagement (Gloucester – Face2Face) Tickets, Tue 13 Jun 2023 at 13:30 | Eventbrite
- Thursday 15 June from 10am until 1pm, online (virtual) via MS Teams. Book here: Community Mental Health Transformation Engagement (Gloucester – Virtual) Tickets, Thu 15 Jun 2023 at 10:00 | Eventbrite
Stroud events
- Monday 19 June from 1 until 5pm at The Salvation Army, in Stroud. Book here: Community Mental Health Transformation Engagement (Stroud – Face2Face) Tickets, Mon 19 Jun 2023 at 13:00 | Eventbrite
- Wednesday 21 June from 10am until 1pm, online (virtual) via MS Teams. Book here: Community Mental Health Transformation Engagement (Stroud – Virtual) Tickets, Wed 21 Jun 2023 at 10:00 | Eventbrite
We will be holding events in other areas in due course and dates/booking details will follow soon.
If you have any questions, please email cmhtransformation@ghc.nhs.uk.
Feedback from Training
We’ve been advertising training available to voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) partners working with people with mental health needs in Gloucestershire.
The courses have been very popular, and feedback has been equally as positive. Here is some feedback from two people who attended sharing what they thought.
Prob Singh:
The training was over two morning sessions and was delivered very professionally by Bronwen Williams.
It highlighted several mental health conditions and explained them individually. The first morning session was defining mental health conditions and illnesses. The second morning session went into broader detail. The method of delivery was PowerPoint presentation and video presentations with a lot of interaction and engagement from the participants.
We also went into breakout rooms for discussion and input on the various Mental Health conditions. We had been given resourceful information to access and signpost out if and when required which was given to everyone who attended. These were valuable and beneficial resources to use and informational and knowledgeable material. The trainer Bronwen had a great personality full of excitement and delivered the course with passion, which made the course thoroughly enjoyable and engaging. She explained the course content in a very understandable way so that we were all involved and made to feel included – this was maintained throughout which gave me a great learning experience and enabled me to remain engaged and interested. I thoroughly rate this course.There is so much to learn from the different topics on Mental Health which this course delivered.
Bill Singh:
You had to log on with plenty of time to sort any issues out – the training was to start at 9am prompt and latecomers were not be able to join the course. You also needed to be able to attend fully both sessions on Monday and Tuesday from 9am to 1pm.
The sessions were delivered interactively and not as webinars. The session started with everyone introducing themselves to the group.
During the course you learn;
- What some of the mental health problems are that cause people to experience mental health crisis
- What mental capacity is and how it is assessed
- Common mental health problems that lead people to experience mental health crisis
The course asks us to think about not only what others might need to plan for in a crisis but also how we manage difficult days and times in our own lives.
Learning Outcomes include the importance of care planning and crisis and contingency plans.
You also have discussions around certain mental health scenarios in breakout rooms during the sessions.
The overall training session was delivered professionally and was very interesting with so much learning gained and a much clearer knowledge of the importance about understanding Mental Health Crisis Care.
Please note that the training can be quite hard hitting, and covers topics include self harm and suicide. Please be aware of this in advance. To enquire about future training, please email proudtolearn@gloucestershire.gov.uk.
What is Community Mental Health Transformation?
A reminder:
- Community Mental Health Transformation is part of a national programme
- It’s about providing easier access and better support for adults with serious mental illnesses (SMI)
- There’s a focus on shorter waiting times
- Physical health checks are being promoted to prevent people with SMI from developing serious physical health conditions
- There is a particular focus on conditions like eating disorders and personality disorders
- Housing and employment are key elements of the programme
- A new assessment tool called DIALOG (see below) is being introduced which will help people who use services tell us what goals they want to achieve
- Locality Community Partnerships are being formed, to bring NHS organisations and community and voluntary sector partners together to provide more joined up support to meet people’s needs
The programme is being led by Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust on behalf of NHS Gloucestershire, however it is a collaborative effort with partners and Voluntary and Community Sector organisations including the VCS Alliance, Inclusion Gloucestershire and the Independence Trust.
What is DIALOG?
The DIALOG scale is a needs-based assessment which asks questions about how satisfied (or dissatisfied) someone is with various elements of their life. This covers mental health, physical health, employment, housing, leisure activities, relationships/friendships, personal safety, medication, practical help, and meetings with mental health professionals.
It is carried out when someone first seeks help and then at various times to track progress.
Keep in touch!
We will be updating our webpage regularly. You can reach it via www.ghc.nhs.uk/cmht. Contact us via CMHTransformation@ghc.nhs.uk.
If you no longer wish to receive these updates, please email ghccomms@ghc.nhs.uk.
