Agenda item

This report presents the Health and Wellbeing Board with information about the recent York Mental Health Summit and how the outputs from the summit are being progressed.

The Board received a report which provided it­­ with information about the recent York Mental Health Summit and how outputs from the summit were being progressed. The independent Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board’s Mental Health Partnership and the Accountable Officer at NHS Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group were in attendance to present the report.

Key points raised in the presentation of the report included:

·        That there was the considerable demand for mental health services in York which, although not out of step with national trends, highlighted the urgent need for differing sectors to work together in creating a short, medium and long term plan on the issue of mental health.

·        That the Board expressed their satisfaction with the response from key partners at the York Mental Health Summit, who made commitments to contribute to the aforementioned short medium and long term plan; the need to link together efforts in the public and private sector was also emphasised.

·        The recognition of the pressures on mental health staff and the ongoing issues of recruitment of mental health professionals.

From the perspective of the primary care sector, it was noted that:

·        Mental health had gone from being the fifth to the second most common issue that GPs dealt with.

·        It was important to link mental health community assets in York such as walking groups and other initiatives to increase social interaction and combat loneliness.

In response to questions from Board members, it was noted that:

·        The main mechanism by which progress on the listed actions will be given, was through the Community Mental Health Partnership, which may provide the Board with updates whenever necessary.

·        The main pressure points in the 20% of the population who are facing increased need or previously unmet need were in primary care with issues such as eating disorders, but there was pressure across all areas and particular attention was being focused on improving care for those formerly at the ‘threshold’ of eligibility for mental health services.

·        Partners in education were being worked with closely to provide new courses in nursing, social care and mental health and that efforts were being made to increase the capacity of mental health professionals to meet the increasing demand for the next three years, with a course in Nursing at York St John University beginning in September being highlighted.

·        The community mental health programme was seeking to reduce gaps between primary and secondary care as well as linking with children’s services to provide a more comprehensive service.

The Chair thanked members for the discussion of the report and emphasised the need for local provision for social interaction and combating loneliness as the country begins to leave lockdown.

Resolved:

(i)           That the contents of the report be noted.

(ii)         That members of the Board will ensure that adequate resources are made available within their individual organisations to progress the actions within the timescales identified in the action plan at Annex A to this report.

Reason: To allow the Board to receive the information about the recent York Mental Health Summit and to ensure that the action plan detailed at Annex A can be progressed.