Major investment programme underway to transform mental health services

A three-year mental health community service programme is underway in Haringey.

The £25 million Community Mental Health Transformation Programme will see people with mental health difficulties treated more holistically in the community.

Everyone who uses mental health services is being allocated a named key worker who will work with them to draw up a plan for their care and treatment, using a new system that explores a service-user’s perception of their quality of life.

They are being given help to resolve issues related to their condition such as problems with benefits, physical health and accommodation. They will also be offered help to improve their physical health – including annual health checks, tests and follow-up care.

The funding is creating hundreds of new jobs across north London boroughs Haringey, Enfield, Islington, Camden, and Barnet, to help identify people with mental health conditions earlier, so that they can be treated sooner. This aims to ensure people lead fuller and happier lives, connected with their communities, and so reduce the chance that their condition becomes so acute they require hospital care.

The programme involves closer working with GPs and with voluntary sector organisations and community groups, providing support to address the social factors that affect mental health and ensure that people are much better connected within their local community.

Dr Thomas Spary, is a GP partner at Lawrence House Surgery, in Tottenham, where a mental health specialist is now working at the practice. He said: “By having the mental health practitioners working more closely with primary care in the community, we are hoping that this provides better referral pathways, shorter waiting times and faster assessments closer to home for our patients who are struggling from the effects of mental health problems, which we know have increased over the last 18 months with the pressures of lockdown.”

Peer coaches, who have received mental health support in the past, have been recruited to help connect with seldom-heard groups. Some will be working with child and adolescent mental health services to ease the difficult transition from being in the care of social services, to independent living.

Deputy chief executive of Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust, and the programme lead, Darren Summers, said: “The new neighbourhood teams are reaching out to communities to develop new services which will be tailored to meet the unique needs of those living in that area. We expect to see big improvements in people’s mental health within a few years.

“This is an exciting time for mental health care; we are seeing major investment which is enabling us to offer expanded and enhanced services to really help people.”

The new teams and services will be fully operational across all five boroughs by November 2024.