NELFT on way to launch
11/02/19
Great to meet staff from North-East London today who will soon be launching their first teams in Waltham Forest and Barking in the first week of June.
One step closer in Cambridgeshire
10/02/19
More progress made in Cambridgeshire. Both the MH Trust and the Police now ready to move to project scoping workshops.
Cumbria one step closer to launch
30/01/19
In Cumbria today with Cumbria Partnership NHS and Cumbria Police planning for their high intensity SIM team in Carlisle. Launching April 5th.
They will be the 17th Trust/Force to go live on the network.
Better crisis care for our service users = more crisis resources for other people too
29/01/19
Here are the latest statistics from one of our more developed teams who have been operational for nearly 2 years.
Their data demonstrates that by providing more integrated and personalised support to people who experience highly intensive mental health crisis, that two things can happen:
1. Most importantly of all, the individual patient feels better supported. Service users on the SIM programme often report feeling safer, more hopeful and reassured. Our teams stick with them as they find their feet and rebuild healthier and safer futures. The duration and type of care is personalised for each person we mentor.
2. Indirectly, through working together with the service user, we can all agree what crisis resources they still need, as well as what resources are not needed anymore. We do this by co-producing crisis response plans with them. This means they always receive care and support when they need it, but that the staff and resources provided are pre-arranged and appropriate. This allows all our crisis teams to reallocate their resources to other people in need.
For every £1 spent on providing SIM support, this team is releasing £3.33 of crisis care resources for other uses.
Its a much better balance for everyone.
Online Courses to launch this week!
13/01/19
Excited to announce that the first of our online Professional Courses launch this week!
Staff from NHS mental health trusts and their policing partners first attend our 3 day class based course and then get their own online, video based training accounts.
Course 1 of the online syllabus goes live this week.
Course 2 is in the final stages of post film production and will be going live in March.
Courses 3 and 4 will be recorded in the summer and will go live in the Autumn.
Thank you to all who have been involved over the past 2 year to turning our online training ambitions into a high quality national course.
NHS publish "Long Term Plan" - How we will deliver 16 national objectives
09/01/19
This week the NHS launched their new national strategy. called the 'Long Term Plan'.
As a clinical network, we are reassured that the core goals of the NHS in the next 10 years mirror our own vision for better high intensity MH crisis care.
In particular, we will be able to deliver 16 individual objectives of the 'Long Term Plan', as follows:
CHAPTER 1
1. Providing care in community settings, not hospital.
2. Reducing pressures on emergency teams.
3. Providing patients with better opportunities to define their own care (co-production).
4. Providing elements of care using digital platforms.
5. Providing care that integrates different public services.
CHAPTER 3
6. Providing better preventative care for children in crisis.
7. Providing care supported by research and continual innovation.
CHAPTER 4/5
8. Supporting staff in their roles.
9. Supporting the provision of clinical care.
10. Improving safety of patients.
11. Improving the productivity of care.
CHAPTER 6
12. Saving more money than we spend.
13. Reducing/preventing increases in demand on services.
14. Reducing unnecessary variations in service quality (e.g. post code lottery).
OTHER
15. Providing employment opportunities for people whose health has historically prevented meaningful contributions to society.
16. Improving our understanding of how long term mental health problems interface with the criminal justice system. Preventing crime and disorder by people struggling with crisis behaviour.
For more information, go to:
https://www.longtermplan.nhs.uk
New Team Launch!
10/12/18
First day of the 3 day training course completed today for our brand new team in Gloucestershire. A great group of mental health nurses, mental health specialist police officers and social workers are with us this week. It is such a pleasure training such a passionate bunch of people who are keen to further improve the lives of people who habitually use front line services in crisis. The first team in the newly founded Gloucestershire High Intensity Network will launch on Wednesday in Gloucester. They are our 10th team to go live.
Progress report to NHS Surrey Downs CCG
29/11/18
Great to see some familiar faces from 2016 when we first presented a model of care we had just developed called SIM to our neighbours in Surrey. Little did we know at the time that Surrey and Borders NHS and Surrey Police would grab the opportunity to adopt our model and form SHIPP, their own team based on SIM principles. Here we are over 2 years later with 17 NHS Trusts/Forces live or launching teams and another 10 teams highly likely. Thank you Surrey for trusting our leadership.
HMICFRS report on Policing and Mental Health
27/11/18
This morning, HMICFRS published its report about how the Police Service responds to mental health in our communities, the challenges faced by all crisis care teams and the opportunities for improvement.
We wholeheartedly agree with the report, that in some areas of crisis care, the Police Service is being relied on too much to care for people in crisis. We believe the fundamental cause of this problem is the widely discussed and reported, under-funding of NHS mental health services nationally over several decades. This under funding has unfortunately left our 60 MH Trusts more than 20,000 mental health nurses short. As a result, the police service is 'Picking Up the Pieces' and will continue to do so until the MH service is sufficiently resourced.
Staff across all 60 MH Trusts and 43 Police forces continue to do an amazing job in very challenging circumstances.
Once we have built a MH service that is more fit for purpose, it will then be possible to find a much healthier balance between the role of Police, Ambulance, A&E departments and MH teams in responding to crisis calls. However, we also believe that the Police will always have a role to play in safeguarding and caring for people living in our communities who present with specific mental, behavioural and neurological challenges.
Looking forward optimistically, the report has made 5 Key Recommendations and we are confident that the High Intensity Network can take a leading role in 4 of them, as follows:
Recommendation 2 - Developing more accurate ways of collating mental health demand, most notably through digital data systems. We are leading the way in the digitisation of crisis care for our highest risk patients.
Recommendation 3 - Police forces have been asked today to review their Street Triage response teams. What we think they will find is that no matter what quality of response they offer, Street Triage does not prevent repeat callers from calling. This is where our SIM model of care fills the gap and this is why nearly half of all NHS MH Trusts are already making a commitment to start high intensity intervention teams based on our SIM principles. We are an NHS England and NPCC endorsed solution, working with all 15 Academic and Health Science Network (AHSN) teams to deliver our model of care in every region of the UK.
Recommendation 4 - Review of Police MH training. We are the only organisation in the UK that provides a national, specialist training course (both classroom based and online) for high intensity MH patient care.
Recommendation 5 - The Dept of Health and Social Care have been asked to explore whether there is' sustainable and integrated support to prevent repeat contact' by September 2019. We will continue to play the lead, national role in delivering integrated solutions that better support people struggling with repeat crises.
To read the report in full, please go to:
https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmicfrs/publications/policing-and-mental-health-picking-up-the-pieces/
Yorkshire and Humber Visit - second workshop
25/11/18
This week we spent more time with NHS managers from two Mental Health providers in Yorkshire & Humber. Humber NHS and Navigo (together with STP MH Leads) will be working with Humberside Police over the next few weeks to discuss their highest risk. highest frequency patients and how the SIM principles can be designed into their local mental health programme. We will hopefully be returning in February. Thanks to Ruth and Vicky from Yorkshire & Humber AHSN for hosting the event and coordinating our ongoing discussions.