Agenda item

To provide an update on the progress made in the implementation of the Joint Mental Health Strategy

Kathy Roper, Head of Commissioning (All Age Disability and Mental Health),   provided an update relating to the implementation of the Joint Mental Health Strategy.  Stephen Marshall, CCG was in attendance.

In response to questions raised relating to the impact on the Black Country Partnership Foundation Trust (BCPFT), the Head of Commissioning confirmed the arrangements were collaborative and there was a good working relationship with partners in innovative and good schemes.

Don McIntosh, Health Watch, referred to the need to be mindful that issues have changed since 2013 and that there would be challenges in how services work together. He advised that Health Watch were trying to talk to commissioners and individuals. The Panel recognised that there were other issues for the service and highlighted the need for people to have somewhere safe to live and to tie services together into the hub, essentially pulling together a one stop shop for advice and guidance.

The Panel identified that it would be useful to see statistical information and the numbers of people affected to see some benchmarking and to know if people were getting the level of support now that double the numbers of people were being discharged. The Panel were advised that the current strategy is good but that there are some issues for GP’s; the organisational changes for BCPFT and other factors such as the Vanguard service (Government) i.e. the out of area service was not recorded in statistics and travelling distances puts pressure on families.

Health watch advised that they were talking with commissioning services and had raised the same key issues that the report identifies, one of the key questions would be relating to services on your doorstep.

Stephen Marshall confirmed that the BCPFT changes would not be instant and that discussions and diligence would00 not take place for a while. The Panel requested information relating to Partnership structure and work stream.

In response to questions relating to additional funding for mental health, Stephen Marshall advised that it had recently been announced that resources would increase by 4% £28 - £29 million this year.  Don McIntosh, Health Watch, requested a breakdown of what services were being commissioned for transparency he was advised that the information was being co-ordinated but was not available at this time. The Panel requested further information be forwarded as a case study to capture an episode and follow through the steps that an individual would follow. The Commissioning Team Manager agreed to produce a case study to highlight how incredibly complex the issues can be and the number of organisations that contribute to a case.

Cllr Mark Evans referred to the Urgent Care Pathway, specifically the rapid response triage vehicle to help people in an emergency and the out of hour’s team arrangements for evening and weekend.  Panel were advised that the service had met all targets for the year and that it was effective. They heard that the at least ten emergency admissions a week were avoided through rapid response and that earlier intervention and co-ordinated approach was saving valuable resource and was better for the individual. The Service Director PH asked to look at data collected to look for themes to prevent further upstream. 

The Panel welcomed how effective the rapid response triage vehicle had been from a police perspective; noting that previously a police officer could have been tied up in a response for hours and that the new approach had reduced officer’s response time to under an hour.    

The panel was advised that there had been regular review to detail progress and demonstrate outcomes; the implementation plan had been reviewed on a monthly basis.  Don McIntosh welcomed the new supported housing options highlighted in the report.

Resolved:

1. That the Panel receive and note the progress made in the implementation of the Joint Mental Health Strategy.
   
   
2. That further information was requested by the Panel, as follows:
   1. A breakdown of what services are being commissioned.
   2. A case study to map out what interaction and organisations are involved in an episode.
   3. Data collected in relation to rapid response episodes to look for themes to prevent further upstream.