Humber NHS Foundation Trust is welcoming this high profile focus being given to mental health services following Prime Minister Theresa May’s speech to the Charity Commission, where she described mental health as “dangerously disregarded” and as secondary to physical health.
In her speech Mrs May spoke of the need to place less emphasis on patients visiting their GP or attending A&E services.
This is something the Trust is already working towards, with plans well underway to launch a new crisis pad in April 2017 and the recent introduction of the Rapid Response Team in November, which both seek to reduce reliance on other services by providing a more appropriate alternative, especially out of hours.
The crisis pad will be a new service that has been made possible following a successful bid for £357,000 of funding from the Department of Health. The service will offer people experiencing crisis or distress access to a calm, safe, environment providing support/therapeutic interventions and where necessary, rapid access to a suitably qualified practitioners who can assess their needs.
The Prime Minister also spoke about the need to help people suffering with their mental health into employment, which is an initiative the Trust strongly supports through its Positive Assets service that encourages and supports people who have used mental health services to apply for posts within the Trust, Hull City Council, NHS Hull and City Health Care Partnership.
The service also aims to improve mental health in the workplace by offering a service for job seekers who feel that their mental health problems pose a barrier to gaining employment and a service for employers to provide support to them and their business for managing mental health within the workplace.
Interim Chief Executive Michele Moran said:
“We welcome any focus on mental health services from government that aims to help raise awareness and reduce unacceptable stigma. In particular, we are pleased to see that the Prime Minister has spoken about a greater focus on community care, an approach that we have been working towards in the Trust as part of our mental health transformation programme.
“This major transformation programme was launched in March 2016 and has seen the Trust make changes to the provision of rehabilitation mental health services in order to shift focus away from inpatient settings and into community models.”
“It is important to see the Prime Minister talking about mental health and providing this often overlooked area with a much needed spotlight. We also welcome the national review of child and adolescent services announced by the Prime Minister.”
