Connect Health “Change” brings you the latest in a series of webinars to make and embed transformation in healthcare. Aimed at system leaders and clinicians across the NHS, the webinars provide practical solutions to the challenging issues we are all grappling with.
As part of the Connect Health Change webinar series, we present the Q&A summary from our panel who discuss Mental Health in the post-COVID world.
Covid-19 and the nation’s mental health (source Centre for Mental Health) confirms that 10 million people in England will need support for their mental health as a direct result of the pandemic over the next three to five years.
It is concerning that the predicted levels of demand are two to three times higher than current NHS mental health capacity, despite additional investment. Specialist bereavement support, people economically impacted by the pandemic, survivors of severe Covid and health and care workers are being adversely affected and need specific services. Mental and physical health are treated separately, causing higher costs and poorer health.
Delegate feedback included:
- The inclusion of a person with lived experience was hugely valuable was very much appreciated.
- The speakers were varied and each view on the topic was important to hear.
- The session was thought provoking and highlighted key areas for change and value.
- The patient feedback was invaluable. I liked the overview and the positivity for change at such a challenging time. It’s good to hear and refreshing.
Watch the Webinar in Full
Chaired by:
Shazna Khanom, Director of Mental Health Services, Connect Health
Q&A
Emma Branch, Chief Executive Officer, The Counselling Foundation
Question 1: What can the newly formed integrated care systems do to make it simpler for voluntary sector organisations to respond to procurement opportunities and deliver services on behalf of the ICSs particularly if it states that it can work with very small or very large organisations?
Answer: Simplifying the process, there is a lot that can be done and I do see being done in some places about making it easier for small organisations to respond. Sending out opportunities that don’t require a team of five people to spend a month writing and crafting a response. I think perhaps the bigger thing is to really listen to what we’re telling them and for the ICSs to be given enough freedom by the NHS England framework to perhaps make more pragmatic decisions that might be the right ones today even if they’re not the long-term aspirations. I think a bit of listening and a bit more could make an awful lot of difference in terms of care that we’re providing next week and next month as opposed to in five years time.
Question 2: Why is the voluntary sector so crucial to mental health services and what’s this what specific and different skills do you bring?
Answer: In the voluntary sector you often get specialists within their fields who may be attracted to working together. I gave the example of eating disorders earlier in the talk, there’s a great organisation in Bedfordshire, a real centre of excellence for eating disorders but I think it can also attract people who maybe don’t want to work for a large organisation such as the NHS.
Sometimes people are suspicious of the NHS, sometimes people don’t want to access care through their GP. There can be a whole host of reasons why statutory bodies can feel like a scary barrier to many people whereas approaching a voluntary organisation can feel less scary, less intimidating, less terrifying. As smaller organisations we can often be closer to our clients and the client experience and respond rapidly to feedback that we’re getting and how we develop things in partnership with the communities that we’re located in.
Sanisha Wynter, Diversity and Inclusion Consultant, the Patient Perspective
Question 1: What would be different as a result of tackling racial injustice and what’s the change you’d like to see?
Answer: We’re all aware of the racial injustice or health inequity when we’re thinking about race and people from racialised backgrounds and what I would like to see is action. I would like to see co-creation with organisations that specifically work with certain marginalised communities and to see more collaborative projects would be a huge thing to see; projects led by people with lived experience. We’re really putting our funding behind the activists and advocates within this space that really know this work because they live their experience every day, I would really like to see that moving forward. There’s been so much conversation about language changing and whether we should use emotionally unstable personality disorder, borderline personality disorder in general and for me I’m not so hung up on the language, I’m more worried about the disparity in treatments and services. For some people with personality disorders they receive a comprehensive experience of treatment and for others they don’t receive specific experience based on their diagnosis.
I’d really like to see an implementation of services for everyone that’s really tailored to the individual and their individual needs and not just what do we have funding for because I think there are so many mental health patients that have been shafted or just not given the support that they do need. I would really like to see that across the whole of the United Kingdom and not just in London or certain areas.
Question 2: As a carer and patient how can we be treated more respectfully without being classed as difficult?
Answer: It definitely puts the patients as the owners and masters to not be seen as difficult. What is difficult depending on who you’re working with? Some behaviour might be difficult and some might not be. What I’ve found works really well to communicate my experiences without seeming difficult is to write down or to keep a journal of the symptoms that I’m having so I don’t feel like I’m being questioned or gaslighted or feeling like I’m being denied. This way I can visually show even if I can’t recall what’s happened, I can show from my journal that this is my experience or these are the symptoms I’ve been having recently. Definitely challenge it if you do feel like you are being labelled as difficult because I do think that sometimes there are people within the sector who can definitely reinforce stereotypes and stigmas for people with personality disorders or other mental health issues. We need to be holding people to account.
All speakers – What is the one thing you would change to improve outcomes for those impacted by mental health?
Emma: For everyone involved in mental health care to acknowledge and be aware that there are many things they don’t know
Sanisha: For patients and people with lived experience’s time and their voices to be valued and to be included in the co-creation of new projects and new research. We aren’t just the afterthought or the result, we’re there from the beginning and all the way throughout.
Watch the webinar again, which includes further insight from the speakers including a full Q&A session, and read more about the speakers here:
Wednesday 9 February 2022
View our speakers’ biographies
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