Kevin Beardsworth’s message on changes to mental healthcare in Suffolk
So currently we have been working on the community transformation plan. The goal is to bring the knowledge, the skills and the expertise from the mental health team to the community at the point where it is most needed. So, we’re basing psychologists within schools, so they’re available to school’s staff and young people at that point. We’ve also got mental health workers within GP surgeries in early adopter sites to have immediate access to that expertise and those workers to offer consultation and expertise where it’s needed and supporting the professionals supporting young people and their families at that primary level of need. So what young people and their families will see is immediate support and immediate help, immediate guidance rather than waiting to see someone else also not having to tell their story several times over. So, they’ll be able to tell their story to one professional who will then seek the support of the system to then put together the best support package and intervention they can.
So for the staff it would mean working in the community, so they’re working directly with the local community in terms of the schools and the GP surgeries and other local community services. So, they’ll be at the preventative end supporting positive mental health and helping young people and their families where it’s needed immediately rather than having to deal with young people with chronic problems because lack of that immediate access to services. So this will be a lot more rewarding for staff but will also help them work as part of the alliance rather than working in isolation or feeling like they’re working in isolation from other services, so it will be truly a community approach.
Vital to this process so far has been the input from all of the alliance, all of our partners including the voluntary sector, our parents, our carers, our young people, this service that we are developing is being driven by their expertise, their knowledge, their lived experience, we continue to need that feedback, we really do need to understand what their needs are, whether we are getting it right, what we can do to improve and therefore it will encourage people to go to the website to give us that feedback. This is a learning process, we call it action research in which that feedback will keep us developing and trying to produce the best service we can to meet the needs for the local community.
You can find more information on the #averydifferentconversation children, young people & families page.
