Tackling mental health backlogs

This is the second episode from our podcast series Providers Deliver: Tackling the care backlog.

This episode focuses on the innovations and successes of mental health, learning disability and autism trusts in tackling care backlogs.

This week we hear from three trusts in different parts of the country, dealing with different communities about what they have done to help their existing patients, to identify those in need of urgent support, as well as what they have learned from the pandemic.  They talk us through the grand collaboration, a bed bureau plus and providing 'scaffolding' for patients, families and communities.

 

This episode includes contributions from:

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust - the grand collaboration

Rod Booth, director of performance, Neil Balmer, programme lead for South London Listens (SLL), and Albinia Stanley, community organiser in Southwark and Peckham, talk about how South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust works with local partners to identify and respond to local mental health needs, building trust and confidence in local services and tackling stigma.

They describe their process of community engagement, developing priorities and a programme of work, and the practical steps that have been put in place to address those needs, before they escalate into crises. This is a grand collaboration involving three south London mental health trusts, two integrated care systems, nine local authorities and 150 local organisations, "enabling people to live the best life possible".  

Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust - a bed bureau, plus...

Sian Wimbury, deputy chief operating officer, and Jane Arands, strategic lead for the North West Bed Bureau, at Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, discuss a new collaboration between four mental health trusts and three independent providers that has created 56 additional adult mental health inpatient beds and helped reduce out of area placements and backlogs for people waiting in general hospital beds or in the community.

To date, 440 individuals have been able to access one of these additional beds. In addition to those individuals benefiting directly from the Bureau, the extra capacity made possible through this new collaboration has also had an indirect, wider positive impact on the health and care system’s ability to meet demand and tackle backlogs.

Bradford District Care NHS Trust - scaffolding for life

Kelly Barker, general manager for Mental Health Services, Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust, and Helen Davey, Chief Executive MIND Bradford, explain their work with other voluntary and community organisations across Bradford to better meet growing demand for the area's adult community mental health services. It has involved delivering six-week intensive support to individuals focused on the issues that are triggering mental health challenges and ensures a more holistic approach to mental wellbeing. This has meant people are receiving person-centred support earlier, which is having a positive impact on their mental wellbeing. It has also created more capacity for community mental health teams to help address backlogs.

Kelly and Helen see the new approach being taken as 'scaffolding to support individuals and families to build autonomy and skills into their lives'. Originally the service was to run for 6 months – but is now to continue for a further 12 months across a broader area.

Thank you to all of them, and their staff.