Shaping the future of mental healthcare across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire
Health and care partners from across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire came together at County Hall on 1 October to explore how Neighbourhood Mental Health Centres (NMHCs) and a Mental Health Emergency Department (MHED) could transform the way people access mental health support.
Organised by Notts Healthcare and the Integrated Care Board, the event brought together people with lived experience of mental health services alongside partners from mental health, acute and community services, primary care, local government, the voluntary and community sector and other partners. It was a great opportunity to share ideas and consider what future services should look like across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.
The development of NMHCs is part of a wider ambition to bring mental health support closer to people's communities, providing accessible, welcoming and joined-up services that respond to people’s needs earlier and reduce reliance on hospital-based care.
Alongside this, the proposed MHED model aims to provide a dedicated environment for people experiencing an urgent mental health need co-located with the emergency department whilst offering an alternative to traditional emergency department settings where clinically appropriate.
The event was open by Dr Husein Mawji, GP and chair of the Mental Health Partnership Board before hearing from Joe Sullivan, Mental Health Care Group Director at Nottinghamshire Healthcare Foundation Trust and Tim Guyler, Director of Integration at Nottingham University Hospitals. This was followed by presentations from attendees with lived experience of mental health services.
Attendees also learned more about the ambitions of the NHMC and MHED and took part in a workshop to explore what would make them successful, how services could work together more effectively and what is needed to ensure people receive the right support, in the right place and at the right time.
The discussions are a starting point and will help inform the ongoing development of the plans to improve mental health provision across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, ensuring that the views and expertise of partners across the system are reflected in the next stages of work.
Joe Sullivan, Mental Health Care Group Director, Nottinghamshire Healthcare said: “Developing a new Mental Health Emergency Department and Neighbourhood Mental Health Centres is not something one organisation can achieve alone. By working closely with our system partners, we can bring together our collective expertise, resources and understanding of local communities to create services that are truly joined-up, accessible and responsive to people’s needs. Even more importantly, we need to listen to the voices of those people with lived experience and those using our current services to ensure we shape the services they need. Ultimately, listening, learning and strong partnership working will be at the heart of delivering better mental healthcare, closer to home.”
The event was a great opportunity to come together across organisations and think about how we can work better as a system to make a real difference to people’s experiences of mental health support. By working together, we can help make sure people get the right support, at the right time, and in the right place.
A big thank you to everyone who joined us and shared their ideas, experiences and feedback. Your contributions will help shape the future of local mental health services and, most importantly, help us create services that work better for the people and communities who use them.
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