Lynn Marsden – the new national mental health strategy
Lynn described the Partnership Board. This was formerly known as the LIT or Local Implementation Team. There are now different Boards for different conditions. They are a place where everyone including the Primary Care Trust (PCT), Local authority (St Helens Council), the big providers (such as 5 Boroughs) and service users and carers can discuss local service provision. This needs to consider national changes and guidelines.
Currently, the Health Bill has been in the media. It has been controversial and wide reaching. Lynn gave a presentation to the Partnership Board in February. Since then there has been a ‘pause’ for a 3 months listening period. Within providers, this is just a delay of 3 months – the Strategic Health Authorities will still end in 2012. The NHS still has to save £20bn.
People asked about the current news about the Acute Trust – the hospitals. This has been in the papers recently. Lynn said they had no formal information about the changes.
No health without mental health is the name of the new mental health strategy. It is a cross government strategy and covers all ages, and prevention and promotion. It is also all ages.
There are 6 shared objectives in this broad and high level strategy. The whole strategy works towards these -
- More people will have good mental health
- More people with mental health problems will recover
- More people with mental health problems will have good physical health
- More people will have a positive experience of care and support
- Fewer people will suffer avoidable harm
- Fewer people will experience stigma and discrimination
The strategy is outcomes focussed so they will no longer commission for activity (outputs). They emphasise that they want to –
- build resilience, social capital and wellbeing
- Promote mental health and wellbeing
- challenge inequalities
- promote early intervention (this is around the importance of catching things early for example by working with GPs, or providing debt advice on prescription. It is separate from the Early Intervention team.)
The new approach is localised with local decision making. There will be local consultations. Lynn described that there will soon be 3 consultations –
- acute service provision – 5 Boroughs
- access to services – PCT
- psychological services – IAPT
The key documents are all available online:
- the white paper
- healthy lives
- capable communities and active citizens
Lynn suggested that we invite John Edwards to speak to us about capable communities
There is a ministerial advisory group to identify actions and advise on indicators which will deliver
- national measure of wellbeing
- early intervention for all ages
- life course approach
- tackle health inequalities
- stigma and discrimination
By 2014 there will be
- better pathways for mental health
- committed funding for veterans
- recovery pilots (ImROC project)
- publish a series of reviews of evidence on improving public health
- review of health visitors and school nurses
- Royal College to advance GP commissioning comsortia
- DH and DWP looking at return to work
- new suicide prevention strategy in 2011
GP Commissioning
Lynn briefly described GP commissioning and suggested we invite representatives to meet with us.
The interest in mental health is variable across the GPs. There are 3 consortia across Halton & St Helens. Stealth and United League are the two in St Helens.
On the ground, initially things won’t change much.
Lynn apologised several times that her presentation was dry. We all agreed that it is important to be aware of these important changes to services. Service users and carers have the experience of how things are working in reality at the moment. Services need to listen to our opinions when they change services so that it will be change for the better.
To find the complete document and easy read version online, go to
and search for ‘no health without mental health”
The document is only available electronically.
Feedback from the Partnership Board (March – no meeting in April)
- Direct Payments John Edwards will look at the time taken to process payments and will report back to the Partnership Board. If you are experiencing delays please let us know.
- IAPT (Improving access to psychological therapies) IAPT is available for people in steps 2 and 3 of the stepped care model, and psychological therapy is provided by the Enhanced Day Therapy service for people in secondary services.
- Carers Services At the time of the partnership board meeting, there was still a lot of uncertainty about services for this year. This has now been resolved, although it represents a 50% cut in funding for the carers service provided by together (see the carers mailout).
- Funding for Oasis This has now been resolved. St Helens Council have funded the rent for 2011/12 and the Group’s management committee are meeting regularly to make sure the recent uncertainty doesn’t happen again. We thank St Helens Council.
- Payment by Results This is the new way that services will get paid – depending on clinical outcomes rather than their activity.
New projects
- Insight group – David/Tony are still interested in developing this – please contact them if you are interested in finding out more.
- Walks – David is looking for other people to help him organise walks to take place on the 1st Tuesday of each month – please contact him to get involved.
Mental health and debt guide
Martin Lewis – the money saving expert who is often on TV – has a very good booklet which is supported by both Mind and rethink, two of the main national charities for mental health. It is available to download free at
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cards/mental-health-guide
The mailout of the notes includes dates of all the meetings over the Bank Holiday weekends – contact the groups or support workers or the Forum for more information.
