Issue - meetings

(To receive an update from the Assistant Director, Partnerships and representatives of the Midlands Partnership Foundation Trust)

The Chair welcomed to the meeting Ms Jo Sands, Assistant Director Partnerships and Ms Susan Unwin, Consultant Nurse and Approved Clinician at the Midland Partnership Foundation Trust (MPFT). The Chair reported that Upkar Jheeta, Head of Primary Care Development & MH Programme Lead (South Staffordshire) from MPFT was unable to attend this evenings meeting.  The Chair invited the Assistant Director Partnerships and the Consultant Nurse and Approved Clinician to provide a brief overview of the mental health services available in Tamworth.

The Assistant Director reported that The Tamworth Community Safety Partnership Plan 2022-23 identified vulnerable persons and contextual safeguarding (including drugs, alcohol and mental health) as a priority and aligned with the Council purpose to help tackle the causes of inequality and increase opportunities, help tackle causes and effects of poverty and financial hardship and help build resilient communities.

The Council continued to work with statutory and voluntary sector partners who were responsible for the delivery of services to support the vulnerable, especially as a result of the current pandemic.

The Assistant Director Partnerships reported that she was a member of the Southeast Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) Healthy Communities Partnership, initially formed to bring together key Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) partners with key NHS and local authority organisations in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The purpose of the partnership was to work to address health inequalities by working with residents through community asset based approaches (nurturing the strengths and resources of people and communities) in Southeast Staffordshire.

Tamworth was also represented by the Partnerships team on relevant Staffordshire County Council and Staffordshire Commissioners Office for Police Fire and Crime meetings working to address wider community safety and vulnerability concerns.

The Assistant Director reported that mental health had been highlighted as a national area of concern and that it was a focus of need in Tamworth and a priority across all partners.

The Consultant Nurse and Approved Clinician provided an overview of the current configuration of mental health services in Staffordshire as well as the transformation model underway and the partnerships involved in that.

In terms of the services delivered these spanned Adult Mental Health Community services, including increased access to psychosocial therapies, memory teams, dementia and memory services, crisis resolution and Core 24 (liaison mental health teams in acute hospitals (Burton hospital)), as well as Adult In-Patient Services, which for Tamworth residents were based at St George’s hospital and included Dementia in-patient wards and MOD beds as well a Social Care to support hospital discharge.

The Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Community Mental Health Transformation Model aimed to proactively identify local population needs, gaps and emerging demand, using local knowledge in developing priorities and inequalities in health.  There would be no wrong door to access services, with a single point of access to services, enabling self-referral and a reduced threshold to access care.  There would be a drive for NHS providers to work with all voluntary services to remove boundaries. The model would involve partnerships with social care, substance  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15