The Cheshire and Wirral Community Wellbeing Alliance is a group of organisations working together to transform community mental health services. CWP is the host organisation for the Alliance but wider NHS partners, local authorities, charities and organisations from the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector have all signed up to deliver new and joined up ways to support people with complex mental health needs.
Expanding the mental health workforce
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A key area for the Alliance is growing the mental health workforce. New mental health practitioners based in local GP practices will support people at an earlier stage, aiming to offer early intervention and prevent further deterioration of their mental health. Combined with support from other local organisations, the aim is to help address the wider social factors that can worsen mental health symptoms.
Lucy Campbell, is a new advanced clinical practitioner for CHAW (Chelford, Handforth, Alderley Edge and Wilmslow area). She explains:
As a prescribing mental health practitioner, I am able to support people with a wide range of mental health problems. At CHAW we work as a multi-disciplinary team, using the skills of care-coordinators and social prescribers. I am in a privileged position to be the facilitator of excellent mental health care. It is often people’s first mental health conversation and I am passionate about making these conversations count and making a difference in people’s lives at the onset.
Although this way of working is new, we’ve already started to see the benefits. Patients are now having one assessment with their GP and if they need specialist mental health support, they will have a timely review with myself or my colleagues, meaning people have a better experience, can supported more locally, and often not needing a referral into secondary mental health services.
Tracie Haskell, CWP nurse consultant and clinical lead, explains:
The needs of communities, in particular in areas where there are health inequalities, are greater than ever before. This is combined with growing concerns about the social determinants of health.
We know that by looking at population data, mental health is one of the most prevalent long-term conditions locally. By creating new specialist mental health roles with Primary Care Networks (groups of local GPs) we want to shift the focus from only treating people when they become very poorly, to getting help at an earlier stage, in their local area.
Dr Tom Hunsley,CHAW clinical director and GP, says:
The new roles provide GPs with additional support for difficult cases that would otherwise been referred to secondary care resulting in long waits for the patient. This early intervention allows patients to feel engaged and supported at the earliest opportunity, with clear action plans in place to help them with their mental health now, not in several weeks or months’ time.
The new roles support the aims of the NHS Long Term Plan, including closer working between physical and mental health. Currently there are over 30 new mental health practitioners across Cheshire and Wirral, with more joining all the time.
For more information, visit: www.cwp.nhs.uk/alliance
