Summary of ‘Mental Health Services Fit for the Future’ conference held in Birmingham 12th. November 2009 The Mental Health Services Fit for the Future conference took place in Birmingham on Thursday 12 November and attracted over 110 delegates. Chaired by Steve Shrubb, Director, Mental Health Network, Mental Health Services Fit for the Future was a huge success and benefited our audience in many ways. Delegates learned from some of the country's top policy makers in a range of plenary sessions and workshop sessions. The Mental Health Network would like to thank all speakers as well as our supporters Care Principles and Janssen-Cilag Ltd for their support and contribution in making this conference a success. Plenary speakers included: Workshop speakers Presentations The Acute Care Declaration The Innovation Imperative Event summary Highlights included a panel discussion with Nigel Edwards, Policy Director, NHS Confederation based on the key themes of the Mental health and the economic downturn publication. This joint publication from the Mental Health Network, Royal College of Psychiatrists, and London School of Economics and Political Science was launched at the conference. Developing alternative care pathways - Challenges and Opportunities The joint Mental Health Network (MHN) and the Ambulance Service Network (ASN) workshop looked at how ambulance services can develop alternative care pathways with their local mental health providers to improve patients’ outcomes, service efficiency and reduce costs. Sue Putman Clinical Educator, Mental Capacity Act Lead for South Central Ambulance Trust set out the challenges and opportunities for alternative care pathways drawing on her recent experience of setting up pathways with local mental health providers. The challenges identified include: Identifying the right teams and people in mental health trusts to commence discussions about setting up pathways – ambulance trusts will have a number of mental health providers in their region. Ideally there should be one person in the ambulance service preferably with the knowledge and understanding of mental health service provision to establish links. Formalising alternative care pathways agreements between the ambulance trust and mental health services with the support of senior management. Advertising the pathways making sure that the information is available and accessible 24/7 to all relevant staff in the ambulance and mental health services. The following opportunities for alternative care pathways were identified: Improved service for patients with mental health problems with quicker access to the right service at the first time. Steve Shrubb, Director of the MHN also launched the joint ASN and MHN publication on partnership working between ambulance and mental health service identifying areas to build on such as improved training for ambulance crews including 1st aid mental health training and risk assessments of patients. The FSA & Financial Capabilities Alison Fernando, Adult Strategy and Development Lead, FSA Financial capability is a key life skill, and has a measurable positive impact on psychological wellbeing. People with mental health problems are statistically more likely to experience problems with managing their money and debt. Individual capacity for financial capability correlates with age (with younger people generally finding it harder to manage their money than older people) and education, though not with income level. The Financial Services Authority produce a wide range of products to support better financial capability for a wide range of target groups – their guide for new parents, endorsed by the Department of Health and the Royal College of Midwives, has been distributed to almost one million people. They are currently looking at how the FSA could support developing financial capability amongst service users and carers, as well as how organisations, including in the NHS, can support their own workforce better on managing their money. There was a lively discussion at this workshop. Members expressed interest in running workshops and financial wellbeing seminars for their own staff. A number of members expressed a keen interest in helping the FSA develop their stream of work to support service users, which the Network will be taking forward with the FSA and NMHDU. If you didn’t attend this workshop, but would like to get involved in that work, please email rebecca.cotton@nhsconfed.org. Lean Thinking: An Integrated Service Improvement methodology Debbie Aitchison, Leeds Partnership NHS Foundation Trust This session gave an overview of the theory of ‘lean’ thinking and how it can be applied to a service to improve efficiency and reduce cost. Two examples were used in the presentation to illustrate how effective lean thinking can be when applied to care pathways. They were: Redesigning the Rehabilitation & Recovery Care Pathway. Improving the pathway for people with accommodation needs in acute inpatient care. In both cases the ‘process mapping’, a fundamental element of lean thinking was applied to help the trust understand the processes as the first step in redesign. This helped identify and release trapped capacity to produce a more streamlined an effective service.
Professor Louis Appleby, National Director for Mental Health, Yvonne Stoddart, National Acute Programme Lead, National Mental Health Development Unit, Department of Health, Nigel Edwards, Director of Policy, NHS Confederation, Maria Kane, Chief Executive, Barnet, Enfield & Haringey NHS Mental Health Trust, Jed Boardman, Consultant Psychiatrist, Royal College of Psychiatrists, Steve Shrubb, Director, Mental Health Network, Professor Chris Thompson, Group Medical Director, Priory Healthcare, Rowena Young Director of The Lab, NESTA and Christopher Carroll, Special Assistant to the Director of the Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Steve Shrubb, Director, Mental Health Network, Sue Putman ,Clinical Educator; Mental Capacity Act Lead, South Central Ambulance Trust, Alison Fernando, Adult Strategy and Development Lead, FSA, Marie Calnan, Technical Specialist, FSA, Larry Ayuba, Consultant Psychiatrist, Norfolk and Waveney Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, Chris Wager, Adult Services Manager, Norfolk and Waveney Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, Debbie Aitchison, Leeds Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Jim Woolhouse, Leeds Partnership NHS Foundation TrustPlenary sessions
Yvonne Stoddart, National Acute Programme Lead
National Mental Health Development Unit, Department of Health
Rowena Young Director of The Lab, NESTA
The Economic Resiliency Initiative: a US perspective
Christopher Carroll, Special Assistant to the Director of the Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services AdministrationWorkshops summaries
Ambulance services respond to people with a wide range of mental health problems every day and some of these patients will need to go to a hospital Emergency Department (ED) but for others this may not be the most appropriate place to receive care. If ambulance crews could make direct referrals to local mental health services, for example through agreed alternative care pathways this could avoid unnecessary admissions to the ED.
Reviewing the process for the pathways regularly.
For ambulance staff, they will have prompt access to professional advice from mental health providers in managing specialist conditions.
The cost benefits are both financial in a reduction of inappropriate attendance to the emergency department and human in that alternative care pathways may also help to identify frequent callers, some of whom will have underlying mental health conditions, and ensure that their cases promptly and effectively through better contact with mental health service providers.
Marie Calnan, Technical Specialist, FSA
Jim Woolhouse, Leeds Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
