Hywel Dda University Health Board has been shortlisted for a Royal College of Psychiatry (RCPsych) award for its dedication to improve adult mental health services in mid and west Wales.
The RCPsych Awards mark the highest level of achievement in psychiatry and recognise the work being carried out by teams working in mental health care.
The project team have been shortlisted in the ‘Team of the Year: Outstanding Commitment to Sustainable Service Development’ category, for the Transforming Mental Health Services ‘Journey to Recovery’ project.
The project, which was approved at a Board meeting in January 2018, is the only Welsh entry to be shortlisted.
Over one thousand people engaged in a public consultation which asked people for their opinions on proposals to change how care and treatment is provided to meet the mental health needs of people now as well as future generations. Having worked together with service users, staff, partners, including West Wales Action for Mental Health and the Community Health Council, a new model of care was co-designed for mental health services, built from learning from engagement, co-design, international collaboration and public consultation.
This includes:
• 24 hour services – ensuring anyone who needs help can access a mental health centre for support at any time of the day or night.
• No waiting lists – so that people receive first contact with mental health services within 24 hours and for their subsequent care to be planned for in a consistent and supportive way.
• Community focus – to stop admitting people to hospital when it isn’t the best option and provide support in the community when people need time away from home, extra support or protection.
• Recovery and resilience – services that don’t purely focus on treating or managing symptoms, but instead help people to live independent, fulfilling lives with the help and support they need.
Following the robust and comprehensive public consultation, which closed in September last year and has been awarded ‘Best Practice’ status by the Consultation Institute, an implementation plan was co-produced, reflecting the broad range of feedback received and its analysis.
The implementation plan will now undergo more detailed work around the timescales, processes and potential capital requirements. This work will be aligned with the Transforming Clinical Services programme as the final options for public consultation emerge.
The Health Board has a strong commitment towards working in an integrated way to develop and deliver the proposed model and this will continue to be built upon with all partners to ensure everyone is working together throughout implementation to provide integrated services and the best possible mental health care for people. This collaborative approach has been praised in national awards, with the Health Board winning the NHS Wales Awards 2017 in the ‘Citizens at the Centre of Service Redesign and Delivery’ category and being shortlisted in the Patient Experience Network awards in the ‘Championing the Public’ category.
Joe Teape, Deputy Chief Executive for Hywel Dda University Health Board and Chair of the Mental Health Implementation Programme Group said: “We began this journey three years ago by being clear about the need to move away from a traditional service model to redesigning services for the benefit of local people.
“The Transforming Mental Health Services programme has helped us to think differently about how we approach designing, planning and delivering services locally. With our co-developed model approved for implementation we will work continue to work in a co-produced way to ensure that we deliver flexible, responsive, and accessible mental health services.
“I’m incredibly proud and grateful to everyone whose hard work has helped to get us to this point – it’s truly been a team effort.”
The award winners will be announced at a ceremony in London in November.
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