Agenda item

The Board considered a report of the Director of Business Planning and Partnerships, NHS Sheffield CCG (and Chair of the Mental Health Partnership Board) concerning the draft Sheffield Strategy for Mental Health. The Mental Health Partnership Board had developed the draft Strategy, which covered the promotion of good mental health and treatment and care for people with mental health problems.  The Health and Wellbeing Board was asked to comment upon the principles and priorities in the Strategy and to consider whether it would inform and guide the provision of appropriate mental health service provision over the next 5 years.

Tim Furness, Director of Business Planning and Partnerships, NHS Sheffield CCG (and Chair of the Mental Health Partnership Board) presented the report. Stephen Todd, Strategic Commissioning Manager, Sheffield City Council (with responsibility for Adult Mental Health) was also present.

Members of the Board commented and asked questions, as follows:-

The South Yorkshire Police and Sheffield Health and Social Care Foundation Trust had established a Street Triage pilot to improve joint working in cases of mental health crisis and which was funded by the CCG. It was hoped that this would continue.

Some issues had begun to be identified during the development of the Strategy which would require further consideration by commissioners. These included:

·         What people had said about mental health services and how they should change including “Whether care plans still existed?” and “The system makes me feel a nuisance”.

·         The relationship between primary care and secondary care.

·         Treating people as a whole person and undertaking treatment in partnership with the patient.

The estimated prevalence of psychosis amongst adults aged over 16 in Sheffield of 50 per 1000 adults was thought to be a life-time prevalence, rather than the number at any one time.

The vision and aims set out in section 7 of the report should be amended so that the sentence “Helping to make Sheffield a place that supports and improves the mental health of all its people” was listed as the first item.

Whilst prevention was a priority, it was not emphasised within the draft Strategy. The prevention of early death of people with psychiatric illness was important and most deaths were caused by smoking related diseases. The Health and Social Care Foundation Trust had decided not to tolerate smoking by employees or patients.  

The draft Strategy did not include an action plan. However, the Mental Health Partnership Board would ask all providers and commissioning organisations to respond to the Strategy and to state what, in positive terms, they will do to achieve the Strategy’s aims. An action plan would be developed following this process.

Mindfulness approaches should be included in the strategy outcomes.

The inclusion of transitions in the Strategy was positive. There were several recent developments which might be included, which would ensure the Strategy was up to date. These included the Select Health Committee report on Child and Adolescent services of 5 November 2014; the recommendations of the Health Scrutiny Committee relating to Mental Health; the consideration by the Children’s Trust Executive Board regarding mental health; and capturing young people’s views at the workshop.

Young people suffering a mental health crisis might be taken into custody, which was the wrong place for them and action was needed for the 16 to 25 age group in particular. One school had a pilot scheme, whereby specialist mental health work had taken place.

The Strategy document was not explicit about the age range which it covered. Issues concerning transition and connections needed to be highlighted. It was also considered that it would be beneficial to hold a joint meeting of the Children and Young People and Adult Mental Health Boards.

Adults in mental health crisis were also taken into custody. In cases of crisis, a person might be detained and taken to a place of safety.

Work to develop a care pathway and packages in mental health services brought with it challenges. This aimed to create an outcome based contract and pay for people in ‘clusters’ of care on the basis of need. The challenge was a financial one in that the new process could create cost pressures, and a technical one, as it was important to define outcomes in a way that could be robustly measured.

There was an attempt to focus on individual need and also examine how personal health budgets might apply to mental health.

It was clarified that the action plans would identify what was going to be done with regard to each priority.

Resolved: That the Board endorses the work of the Mental Health Partnership Board in developing the Sheffield Mental Health Strategy and supports the work of the Mental Health Partnership Board in finalising and publishing this Strategy.