Agenda item

To receive an update on multiagency activity in Northumberland to promote better mental health since the last report to the Board in December 2020.

Members received an update on multiagency activity in Northumberland to promote better mental health since the last report to the Board in December 2020.  The report was presented by Jon Lawler, Consultant in Public Health.  (A copy of the report and presentation is filed with the signed minutes.)

The following key points were raised:-

•       The involvement of a number of officers at Northumberland County Council and the NENC ICB was acknowledged.

•       The importance of good mental health and wellbeing – there was an increasing trend in common mental health problems.  This was compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic and the increase in cost of living.  Socioeconomic inequalities were closely linked to many risk factors for poor mental health.

•       Multiagency partnerships in Northumberland

•       Adults – Crisis Care, Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Strategic Partnership, Operational Group – promoting good mental health action plan 2022

•       Children – Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health (EWMH) Steering Group, SEND Strategic Partnership, EWMH Operation Group – Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health Strategy 2022-25 and Local Area Strategy 2021-24

•       Examples of collaborative Working to support adults

•       Community Mental Health Transformation – further development of multidisciplinary teams and closer working between voluntary sector, primary/secondary care and Northumberland County Council.  ‘No wrong door approach’, HOPE (Helping Overcome Personal and Emotional Difficulties) Team

•       Partnership Working – Northumberland Communities Together, Dementia Diagnosis Care Home Project

•       Urgent Care Work – Right Care, Right Person, NHS 111 mental health option

•       Alternatives to crisis – Safe Haven development, Together in a Crisis

•       Promoting good mental health and suicide prevention –

•       Training through NCC Public Health

•       Partnership support for campaigns

•       ICB support for primary care

•       Better Health at Work Award Scheme

•       Supporting Northumberland County Council staff – there was a comprehensive wellbeing offer to staff including a health and wellbeing portal, financial wellbeing guidance and support and mental health training for managers.  Other organisations will have their own staff wellbeing offer.

•       Promoting better mental health for men – Men were 3 times more likely to die by suicide than women and had different coping mechanisms and health seeking behaviours.  Examples of activity in Northumberland included Andy’s Man Club and the Northumberland Recovery College and Family Hubs work to support new fathers.

•       Children and young people – increasing demand on services (apparent pre-Covid-19) and increasing complexity of needs.  Multiagency strategy with strong emphasis on partnership work e.g. 0-19 service Emotional Health and Resilience ‘pillar’, Kooth online support and Mental Health Support Teams in schools.

•       Developing a promoting better mental health strategy – building on established partnerships and extensive collaborative work and develop a strategy for Northumberland.  Strategy could include – preventing mental disorders, promoting mental wellbeing and promoting resilience.

A number of comments were made, including:

•       A significant proportion of mental health conditions in adulthood were initiated during childhood and it was important to strengthen parental support though Children’s Services and Family Hubs.

•       It was important to pull together all the strands in this very broad area.  A strategic approach would do this and enable the Board to look back in a year’s time to see whether a difference had been made.

•       What were we not doing, or need to do differently to fill in the gaps?  There was an effective strategic partnership in place but how did the rest of the system know what was going on within that strategic partnership?  It was important to look at the data on inequalities to understand at a strategic level what the impact of inequalities was and where should efforts be focused. 

•       Could more voices be involved as mental health and wellbeing was everyone’s business and conversation?

•       Healthwatch had been reflecting on how best to connect with communities.  The strategy provided a framework to pull together all the various initiatives but there was always room for improvements.  Connecting across the statutory and VCS sector was fundamental.  Consideration should be given to which communities were not being heard from and which we could connect with better.

•       All four of the themes in the Joint Health & Wellbeing Strategy needed to be effective as a system to improve the health and wellbeing of the population and reduce inequalities.  It would be impossible to have good mental health if areas such as income, employment, housing and education were not right.  Making stronger communities along with health care and a whole system approach to health care would be a challenge.  All aspects linked together, and none could be seen in isolation.

•       It would be useful for the health and wellbeing strategies of employers in Northumberland to be developed more as part of the strategy along with learning from good practice.  Some initiatives such as Safe Haven were launching in the New Year.  A huge challenge for CNTW would be community transformation and how that rolled out in partnership. 

•       The four component parts of the Joint Health & Wellbeing Strategy needed to be seamless and large employers and mental wellbeing would come out in the theme at the next Board meeting.  The whole refreshed strategy would then be brought to the March meeting of the Health & Wellbeing Board.

RESOLVED that the wide range of multiagency work which has been undertaken to promote better mental health be noted.