Improving mental health services
The public consultation on Improving mental health services ran from 8 March 2010 to noon on Tuesday 8 June 2010. It sought people’s views about various proposals in West Sussex and to get the right balance between hospital-based inpatient mental health care and services provided outside hospital.
All the feedback and responses from the consultation, along with notes of the public meetings, were collated and sent to an independent analyst, who produced a report identifying the themes and issues raised for the boards of NHS West Sussex and Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
As a result of the consultation process, a recommendation to improve local mental health services was considered at the NHS West Sussex Board meeting 29 July 2010, and was approved.
You can view the paper that was presented to the Board, along with related documents on our 29 July 2010 Board meeting page. All the documents related to the consultation are listed under agenda item 8.
Background
Ten years ago the first ever NHS National Service Framework for mental health was published. It set standards for the way people with mental illnesses should be diagnosed and treated and it led to significant investment in mental health services nationally and within West Sussex.
Today our expectations are more ambitious and go beyond simply treating mental ill-health. Our aim is to provide mental health services which offer real choice to the people who use them, support them in their recovery and enable them to maintain mental wellbeing.
Why change?
Our services outside hospital are continuing to develop so that they offer consistent and high quality support close to people’s homes, including:
- help to stay at work and to participate fully in their local communities,
- new services for people with mild to moderate mental health issues, and
- specialist community services providing 24-hour support to people with more severe conditions who would in the past have been likely to need hospital admission.
As a result the balance of services is changing, meaning that fewer people with mental health problems will need to be admitted to hospital in future.
The consultation document (see right) set out the rationale for change in detail.
The proposals were developed in the light of national and local mental health policies and strategies and you can find out more about these in links in the right-hand column.
What was proposed?
Our proposals were about continuing to improve our community services, reducing the overall number of mental health hospital beds for adults and for older people, in line with future needs, and suggesting where these beds should best be located in the future.
We proposed to reduce the number of inpatient mental health beds across West Sussex over the next 12-18 months from 217 to around 162.
The consultation document (see right) examined the options in detail, how they were developed and the advantages and disadvantages of each.
Each of the options would be implemented in a phased programme. No beds will be removed unless, and until, it is safe to do so and alternative services are in place.
If you would like more information on the possible impact of the various options on journey times for people using mental health inpatient services, and their families, you may find the following websites useful:
Find out more
You can find out more by reading the consultation document which is available to download in a number of formats (see Consultation documents in the right-hand column).
Lots of people had different questions about the proposals and we have compiled a list of the answers to some frequently asked questions which can be found on page 30 of the main consultation document (see right).
Transcripts from public meetings and events
A series of public meetings was held for people to find out more about the proposals, and put their questions to NHS West Sussex, Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, and clinical experts.
You can download the transcripts below:
