Agenda item

To consider the provision of mental health services and support available to working age adults in Buckinghamshire

 

John Pimm, Clinical Lead for Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust’s Healthy Minds Service in Buckinghamshire

Sam Robinson, Head of Buckinghamshire Adult Service for Oxford Health

Thalia Jervis, CEO, Citizens Advice Bucks

Tracey Ironmonger, Service Director, Integrated Commissioning

Minutes:

The Chairman welcomed John Pimm, Clinical Lead for Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust’s Healthy Minds Service in Buckinghamshire; Samantha Robinson, Head of Buckinghamshire Adult Service for Oxford Health; Thalia Jervis, CEO, Citizens Advice Bucks; Tracey Ironmonger, Service Director, Integrated Commissioning and Liz Biggs, Public Health Principal to the meeting.

 

A presentation was provided, appended to the minutes. Tracey Ironmonger introduced the item and advised that the presenters would give an overview of the diverse range of mental health services in place to support adults in Buckinghamshire, a number of which were commissioned from and delivered by Oxford Health.  

 

Samantha Robinson stated that the ‘Adult and Older Adult Services’ included all community and inpatient services in Buckinghamshire for over 18 year olds and ranged from crisis services, specialist services in the acute trust, specialist community teams for perinatal, early intervention services and generic community health teams.  There had been a huge increase in demand during the pandemic, but the Service had continued to develop innovative new services such as the Crisis line. Calls remained steady and referrals to the crisis team, which was established in January 2020 and covered the whole county, continued to rise, and offered alternatives for individuals in crisis.  Referral rates had risen by 46% and there was currently a caseload of approximately 3200 across the teams.  A mental health community hub had been developed in Easton Street, High Wycombe which bought together a range of mental health teams under one roof to provide improved and integrated high quality services.    There had been a decrease in referrals at the start of the pandemic, but the last two months had seen the largest number of referrals since the inception of the service.

 

John Pimm advised that the Healthy Minds Service worked with people who experienced anxiety and depression; the most common form of mental health difficulty and affected over 45,000 adults in Buckinghamshire at any one time.  The Service provided evidence based treatments for anxiety and depression and associated physical health conditions. It was an integrated service and worked with services in BHT and others.  There was also an integrated employment service as part of the Healthy Minds service which was provided by the Richmond Fellowship embedded with the Healthy Minds team.  Over 8,000 people were seen last year and the number was expected to rise to 14,000 by 2023/24 due to increased population estimates.  The workforce needed to be developed/expanded and the service was working with the University of Oxford, Reading and other universities to train new psychological therapists.  Oxford Health had also developed the first psychological wellbeing practitioner apprenticeship programme in the country with Bucks New University which had just been accredited by the British Psychological Society. Healthy Minds accepted professional and self referrals and these could be made on-line through the web site, telephone  etc.    The number of people being seen in the service was expanding rapidly, over 800 per month at present. To improve access, the Service launched an on line Choose and Book system in July 2021 and the majority of people now booked their own appointment on line when they self referred. The service had capacity to see more people and was carrying out a programme to reach out to all communities in Bucks to encourage people experiencing anxiety, depression or stress who could benefit to self-refer.

 

Liz Biggs explained that she was the suicide prevention lead in the Public Health team.  The Suicide Bereavement Support Service had been commissioned in April 2020 to support families bereaved by suicide and was supported by Bucks Mind.  Feedback from the one year evaluation had been extremely positive. The Service would be continuing, and work was being carried out as to whether services could be aligned across the BOB area.  A bid for national funding for suicidal prevention had been successful and would focus on three key areas; follow up for presentations of repeated self-harm or attempted suicide; a BOB Training and Education lead and enhanced Real Time Suicide Surveillance (RTSS).  There was also suicide prevention grant funding available for the voluntary and community sector focused on prevention of male suicide.

 

Thalia Jervis explained she was attending in place of Andrea McCubbin, CEO, Bucks Mind, who jointly chaired the Covid-19 Mental Health Voluntary Sector Response Group with Oxford Health.  The Group was set up in April 2020 and comprised of over 20 organisations.  The Group had made a significant impact; particularly in sharing of resources and peer support which, particularly for smaller organisations during the pandemic, had been critical and had enabled them to respond appropriately.  An important aspect had been the enhanced dialogue between the VCSE, Public Health, Primary Care and BHT and the ability to amplify key messages.

 

The following key points were raised in discussion:

 

  • It was noted that the Community Boards could be a conduit through which to develop activity in the communities as a preventative arm.
  • In response to a query on whether there had been any generational research on the digital therapy interventions; J Pimm stated that the digital interventions had been evaluated and recovery rates were as good, or better, as they removed barriers for many people.  Older people were doing well with the digital interventions, but it was acknowledged that not all people were able to access digital services and wanted a choice of options.
  • A member of the Board asked about the availability of specialist mental health inpatient and residential services and whether any work could be carried out to improve the supply of residential places.  S Robinson advised that the Service had partnered with a housing provider to improve pathways out of hospital which had helped patient flow, but the options were not as plentiful as required and placements, as a whole, was an area where partnership working would be beneficial. 

 

The Chairman thanked all the presenters and stated that mental health was as important as physical health and was keen that it was visible and recommended having a follow-up session in six months’ time with data on the interventions. 

ACTION: J Boosey to add to the forward plan.

Supporting documents: