Published on: 5 October 2023
Health services, Social Care and the Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector are developing new ways of working and modernising Community Mental Health services for adults and older adults, considering the particular needs of each local area.
The Derbyshire programme is called Living Well Derbyshire and the Derby programme is called Derby Wellbeing.
The new services have been provided in response to the national Community Mental Health Framework, which forms part of the NHS Long Term Plan, published in 2019, and encompasses both a shorter-term and longer-term (current Community Mental Health Teams) offer of care. The services will be accessed by a multi-agency service single point of access (SPOA) which will enable easy access via the GP.
The multi-agency team consists of Peer Support Workers, Wellbeing Coaches, Social Care Practitioners, Occupational Therapists and Community Psychiatric Nurses, and is aimed at in assisting those who fall through the ‘gaps’ between primary and secondary care or people who need support with different aspects of their life that can affect their mental health, such as housing advice, loneliness support or physical healthcare needs.
Living Well Derbyshire launched in the High Peak in August and has already received positive results in the local community.
Vikki Ashton-Taylor, Director of Strategy, Partnerships and Transformation for Derbyshire Healthcare and Senior Responsible Officer for Living Well Derbyshire, said: “It’s wonderful to see colleagues from across the system working together in one multi-agency team to provide short term care packages (up to 12 weeks) for people who may be too unwell to be supported by existing primary care teams, but do not meet the threshold for current Community Mental Health Team (CMHT) intervention.
“We know this has been an area of improvement that has been needed for some time to support our community services, in assisting those who fall through gaps. The new services across Derbyshire prove our system-wide commitment to supporting people with all aspects of their mental health.
“I am incredibly proud to be a part of such an important enhancement of our community services and am thrilled to see that all the hard of work of colleagues, experts by experience and partners, is coming to fruition for the benefit of our local populations.”
A Derby Wellbeing prototype service has been running for more a year in Derby and is now expanding to include the whole city.
Positive feedback, gathered by colleagues from Mental Health Together, has been received from those who have used the service, including: “When I started going to see the Derby Wellbeing team, they listened to what I got to say and they supported me with things I needed, like filling forms in and stuff as I’m not very good at stuff like that.”
Another service user said: "They are great, they listened, they are supportive, and they offer opportunities to explore the source of my issues, suggesting checking the areas that possibly I haven’t considered so far that might be a trigger to my mental health problems that I have or have been having.”
The Chesterfield Living Well services launches on Monday 9 October with North East Derbyshire & Bolsover, Derbyshire Dales, Erewash, South Derbyshire, and Amber Valley launching in the coming months.
