Luciana Berger visits Salford Living Well
On Monday 11th March, Salford Living Well was visited by Labour Party politician, Luciana Berger.
Luciana Berger, former Labour MP for Liverpool Wavertree, visited the service as part of her new role leading Labour’s Mental Health Strategy Review.
The Review, which will inform a cross-departmental mental health strategy, is looking into mental health, and what it means to people in communities across the UK. It will focus on mental health of all ages, from the anti-natal period right up to old age. It will consider key themes such as early intervention, the role of employers and inequalities.
As part of her Review, Luciana Berger met with key representatives from Salford Living Well including staff from Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (GMMH), START (a charitable creative & wellbeing organisation), the Growth Hub, and importantly service users and carers with lived experience of accessing mental heath services both within Living Well and externally.
Together, they showcased the flagship Living Well service and the successes of its integrated care model.
Attendees also highlighted some key areas which can impact on mental health access and provision, including: housing, cost of living, neurodiversity, trauma, and infrastructure.
About Living Well Salford
Living Well Salford is part of the Living Well UK programme, which is creating new ways of supporting the mental health of people in local communities. It was originally one of only five pilot sites nationally.
The service is a partnership between GMMH, START Inspiring Minds, Six Degrees, Mind in Salford, Salford CVS, Lingua GM, Salford Primary care Network, Salford Foundation and the Growth Company and Wellbeing Matters.
The aim of the service is to bridge the gaps for people whose needs cannot be met by primary care (GPs and talking therapy services) or secondary care (specialist and hospital mental health services).
Salford Living Well offers holistic support for people struggling with their mental health. There are no eligibility criteria; instead, staff listen to people and connect them with the support they need within their local community.
Alongside a variety of dedicated mental health support and treatment from NHS clinicians, service users are also helped to tackle any social factors that they may be struggling with - which may also be having an impact on their mental health - such as: housing, employment, loneliness, debt, substance misuse, or family dynamics.
Our peer support workers are experts by experience, and they are a fundamental part of the approach. They can connect with people from a place of understanding as they know what it is like to walk in their shoes.
Providing support this way means that people can easily and quickly get the right care for their needs. They’ll be able to get more or less help, to meet their changing needs - known as stepping their care up or down.
It also means better information sharing across professionals and services, meaning a reduction in the number of times people have to “repeat their story”.
Between April 2023 to January 2024, Salford Living Well has supported 1,977 individuals access mental health interventions and community support.
The service is currently providing mental health interventions to 857 individuals across Salford city.
It has supported 41.5 % of people back to employment or stay in employment.
It has supported 100% of people to achieve one of their goals, 89% to achieve two goals and 50% of people to achieve all three goals identified.
About Luciana Berger
Luciana Berger has considerable experience in the mental health sector.
In September 2015, she was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet as the first Shadow Minister for Mental Health.
She has also Chaired the Maternal Mental Health Alliance, a UK charity and network of over 125 organisations, dedicated to ensuring women and families affected by perinatal mental health problems have access to high-quality, compassionate care.
She was a leading member of the Health and Social Care Select Committee and presented the findings of the Committee’s inquiry into children and young people’s mental health to parliament.
Today she serves on the advisory board of the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, a charity founded by Martin Lewis.
Following the Mental Health Strategy Review, Berger will present recommendations before the next election about how to achieve Labour’s plans to prevent mental ill-health.
