How could UK Defence Policy better protect us? Monday May 13th with Lucy Roberts

Community Mental Health Service changes to be discussed by Brent Cabinet tonight

Plans to restructure Brent Community Mental Health services are on the already crowded for tonight's Cabinet.  The current budget is £5.4m and the proposals account for £350k of the £500k reduction tabled for 2015-16.  The model is the outcome of partnership wotk between Brent Council, Central and NW London NHS Foundation Trust and NHS Brent CCG.

The Report LINK gives the views of users and staff:

USERS

· The service needs to be genuinely holistic, taking into account all health and community support needs. 


· The service needs to be person-centred, with the service user setting their own goals. 


· Better information should be available at the point of referral about what services are available, and how they are accessed. 


· Assessment and Brief Treatment needs to be improved – assessments aren’t timely enough and brief treatment is not always provided. 


· Community services for those who are not in acute crisis need to be improved so that support doesn’t drop away when an individual’s mental health starts to improve. 


· The service needs to be better linked with the third sector in order to address broader needs. 


· There needs to be clear information for service users on what they should do if they go into crisis and they need emergency support. 


STAFF

· There should be fewer handoffs between teams and service users should move less between teams. 


· There should be clarity around third sector services in Brent and how service users can access them. 


· The single front door, with senior people carrying out the first assessment, should be more effective than it currently is where services find they are “playing catch up” with the core assessment – eliminate the need for more than one assessment. 


· Bureaucracy should be reduced in the new model

· The advantages and disadvantages of generic care coordinators should be considered – new skills have been learned, even if social care assessments aren’t as good. 


· The continuity of care should be improved. 


· Staff may feel unsettled if they don’t like the new structure – Brent already has 
recruitment and retention issues 


· The service should have sufficient capacity to manage demand 


· Links to other services, such as Housing, need to improve 


· Effective discharge planning with service users is essential. 


· The implementation plan has to be well thought through. The impact on service 
users has to be considered as services are reorganised and staff moved around. 


· Ensure specialist functions aren’t lost in the reorganisation. 


· Interfaces shouldn’t be replicated elsewhere, such as between Primary Care Plus 
and the secondary service 


The report recognises that a change of culture is required in the proposed new model: