Agenda item

The Chairman of AWP, Antony Gallagher, will welcome the Board to the AWP Headquarters before introducing Dr Julia Hankin, Clinical Director AWP, who will provide an update on mental health services.

Anthony Gallagher, Chairman of AWP, was introduced to the meeting and welcomed all present to the Headquarters of AWP before handing over to Dr Julie Hankin, AWP Clinical Director, who welcomed the theme of the meeting noting the desire to provide parity of esteem between physical and mental health at a central government level and also within AWP itself.

The Department of Health (DoH) document entitled ‘Closing the Gap: Priorities for Essential Change in Mental Health Services’ which set out 25 key priorities, was highlighted.  The priorities included:

·         Mental health services

·         Children and young people

·         Crisis and diversion

·         Choice and ending discrimination

·         Improving physical health and integration

·         Support for housing and employment

·         Information and regulation

A brief film was shown highlighting the work being undertaken by AWP to meet the needs of people in Wiltshire as a provider of secondary and specialist mental health services.  A copy of this could be found via the following link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2tJoNvlvAw&feature=youtu.be

Recognising the need for localised structures within the management of AWP, a review had been undertaken and in May 2013 a new Wiltshire Management structure had been implemented. 

Details of the variety of services provided by AWP were highlighted which included primary care, acute hospital liaison, crisis and home treatment teams and adult inpatient care.

A Primary Care Liaison Service (PCLS) and Memory Clinics had been established to allow dementia specialists, primary care and clinicians to provide the most appropriate support.

In line with ongoing improvements for 2014/15 was the reprofiling of community teams to align them with community transformation structures and the CCG 5 year strategy. 

The restructure arising from the reprofiling would result in 4 community mental health teams functioning as 8 workgroups alongside smaller community teams and GP practices.

As part of the wider review to ensure appropriate service delivery, AWP had sought the assistance of Wiltshire Council’s Transformation Team to help establish cultural change within the Trust, including discussion on how campus’ could be utilised to provide services. 

Premature mortality and serious mental illness (SMI) was also highlighted with figures showing that people with SMI had an average of 3.6% higher change of premature mortality than the general population.  Wiltshire was slightly above the average.

The Board welcomed AWPs ambition of better parity between mental and physical health and acknowledged the drive to deliver dual diagnosis in the future, noting the benefits this would bring, for example, on drug and alcohol services.

Upon further discussion in relation to the higher than average mortality figures for Wiltshire, the Board requested that any investigative work should take into account the military and that a target for improvement should be set.

Acknowledgment was made to the excellent work undertaken around S136 which had resulted in a significant reduction in the numbers taken into custody. As a result Wiltshire was placed within the top 6 areas of the country identified as minimising custody placements.

Noting that the police were often a first point of call for mental health related calls it was recognised that training from health professionals would be beneficial to ensure individuals were dealt with appropriately.  Many forces around the country were running a successful street triage initiative of which Wiltshire was also looking to adopt in the future. 

Further discussions would take place between the Police Chief Constable and Clinical Director for AWP to investigate other ways in which the two partners could work together.

The Chairman thanked AWP for the presentation and acknowledged the positive steps already taken and future plans for continued improvements to the services delivered of which the Board looked forward to receiving details of in the future.