Background
The six Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs) across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) offer a range of mental health and wellbeing services, including for those with diagnosed mental illness and psychiatric care needs. For example, Primary Care Mental Health Teams (PCMHT) help people with mental health problems that will benefit from ‘talking’ therapies. Community Mental Health Teams (CMHT) work with people with more complex or longer lasting mental health issues, possibly needing medication. There are also a number of specialist services to meet a range of specific needs including crisis, trauma, drugs and alcohol, eating disorders, and psychotherapy.
Practitioners from a range of professional backgrounds work within these teams and include psychiatrists, psychologists and cognitive behavioural therapists, community psychiatric nurses, occupational therapists, social workers, community development workers, support workers and administrative staff.
Strategy
Services to help people with their mental health are being redesigned to enable us to respond and better support people experiencing mental illness.
The NHSGGC Mental Health Strategy 2023-28 proposes a system of stepped/matched care, with people entering at the right level of intensity of treatment and allowing for movement through different levels of care. It aims to:
- Shift the balance of care into the community and better meet the needs of the patients, as more people access care through expanded community-based services.
- Deliver prevention and early intervention; including mental wellbeing and suicide prevention training for all staff, expanding computerised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (cCBT) services and supporting Wellbeing in primary care.
- Develop the focus on Recovery across community teams and inpatient settings.
- Improve the effectiveness of community services; including developing group based Psychological Therapies, offering Patient Initiated Follow Up (PIFU) which gives people control over return appointments, such as when symptoms or circumstances change, reducing appointments of low clinical value.
- Develop Unscheduled Care; Mental Health Assessment Units diverting people with Mental Health problems who do not require physical / medical treatment from Emergency Departments, community mental health acute care services offering intense support as an alternative to hospital admission and commissioned services to provide help to people in distress where a non-clinical response is more appropriate.
The ongoing and proposed range of community developments represents new ways of working across primary, secondary and community services. They will improve care across the whole spectrum of mental health problems, but importantly and mainly for those with the most severe and complex mental disorder.
The NHSGGC strategy contributes to delivering the Scottish Government’s 2023 Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy.
Feedback from those who have used services
Mental health services intend to continue to improve the way psychiatric and wider mental health services are delivered in future, by responding to what people have told us, redesigning services and changing how staff work with people who access care.
We have previously asked people who access services, carers and family members about what matters to them the most when they need to use the services we provide.
In summary, people who use mental health services told us what matters is that staff and services:
- Take time with them and listen to them
- Take care of people, look after them and make sure they get the right treatment when they need it
- Explain all they need to know and involve them in decision making
- Are knowledgeable, safe and can be trusted
- Show they care, are compassionate and show empathy
- Are friendly, kind, competent and staff are professional
- Communicate with the people who matter to them regarding their progress and condition
- Provide good continuity of care and well-managed frequent service delivery in relation to their needs, at the right time and at the right intensity
- Offer assertive community treatment and respond more adequately to people’s diverse social, psychological and biological needs as opposed to being hospitalised.
We intend to build on previous and informal work already undertaken and now want to:
- Sense check what people have previously told us and identify anything new or changed.
- Better understand what matters to people with protected characteristics.
- Seek to engage with more people to help us with the next phase of engagement.
Ways to get Involved
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) is committed to using feedback to improve the quality of our mental health services. This helps us better understand what is currently working well, and what needs to improve.
Please complete our short survey to share your views on mental health services. The survey is completely confidential. All feedback is anonymous and only used for the purpose of improving how services are provided.
The survey closes at 12.00pm on Thursday 25th April 2024.
If you have any questions about this survey please email us at: Public.involvement@ggc.scot.nhs.uk
Further Information and Resources
Reading some of this may have an emotional impact on you.
Support is always available, and some of the national sources of help are listed here.
Mind to Mind – If you’re feeling anxious, stressed or low, or having problems sleeping or dealing with grief, find out how you can improve your mental wellbeing by hearing what others have found helpful by visiting the NHS Inform Mind to Mind webpage.
Breathing Space is Scotland’s free, confidential listening service for individuals over 16 experiencing symptoms of low mood, depression or anxiety. You can contact them on 0800 83 85 87 Monday to Thursday from 6.00pm to 2.00am and 24 hours a day at weekends (from 6.00pm Friday to 6.00am Monday).
Samaritans provide confidential, non-judgmental emotional support 24/7 for people who are experiencing feelings of distress or despair. You can contact Samaritans free by phoning 116 123 or emailing jo@samaritans.org
NHS 24 Mental Health Hub services are available to everyone in Scotland. The services available include listening, offering advice and guiding you to further help if required. The Mental Health Hub is open 24/7 and you can contact them on 111.
Childline is a free service for children and young people for when they need support or advice. It is open 24/7, and there are many ways to get help. You can call 0800 1111 or visit the Childline website.