Transforming community mental health services
The biggest ever transformation of community mental health services is underway across Greater Manchester and GMMH is part of it.
We are developing a new way of working and modernising our community mental health services for adults (aged 18+) and older adults with severe mental illness and complex needs ( e.g. psychosis, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, severe depression, trauma) , taking into account the particular needs of our local areas.
What is community mental health transformation?
The transformation is part of the national NHS long term plan (opens in new window), which sets out a commitment to making sure everyone can get the mental health support they need (opens in new window).
The aim is to improve care and support for adults with severe mental illness , so that services are person centred, more joined up, easier to access and more consistent. This will help make sure patients, carers and families get the right care and support in the right place, as early as possible.
Our mental health can affect our physical health – and vice-versa, so t he community mental health transformation will bring local services and professionals in Greater Manchester together, including primary care (GPs), secondary care mental health services (community mental health teams and hospital wards), colleagues from social care services and voluntary community and social enterprise (VCSE) services , people with lived experience, carers, and others.
A new community-based offer will improve access to psychological therapies, improve physical health care, provide employment support, deliver personalised and trauma informed care, help with medicines management and provide support for self-harm and substance use.
What we are aiming to do
By listening and working with our local communities to understand more about what people want and need, we aim to improve local mental health services by:
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Clear and accessible routes so people can access the right support, at the right place, at the right time.
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People are supported to stay well in their own home.
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Make sure care is personalised and tailored around individual’s needs.
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People are signposted to community and voluntary services, where needed, to support them with practical needs such as housing and debt support.
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People with long term needs, or specific mental health concerns, which are too complex for primary care, but not complex enough for secondary care services, receive faster access to higher quality care.
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A healthier population with stronger communities and connectivity, reducing loneliness and isolation.
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To reduce the impact on primary and secondary care by focussing on preventative community-based interventions.
How will service users and carers of GMMH be affected?
T here will be no immediate changes to the care you are receiving. If anything is to change – for example, as the Specialist Teams are developed – we will let you know in plenty of time.
We are dedicated to working with service users to ensure we are making a positive difference .
You can get involved with this transformation programme through local Mental Health Collaborative Groups held within each borough or via our service user and carer engagement scheme .
If you are interested in getting involved with the co-design and co-production of our services , please contact serviceusersandcarers@gmmh.nhs.uk.
How will I be kept updated and provide my feedback?
We are committed to ensuring you are well informed on the programme, and will keep you updated through emails, letters and conversations with colleagues and service users.
We will keep this dedicated webpage updated and you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram where we will share the latest information.
We’re already involving lots of people with lived experience, families, carers and others in the transformation work.
If you’d like to help us get things right, ask any questions or send us any comments or suggestions, please email: CTP@gmmh.nhs.uk.
What services are included?
Adult Eating Disorders
The Adult Eating Disorder (AED) transformation project aims to establish a First Episode Rapid Early Intervention for Eating Disorder (FREED) pathway (opens in new window) across GMMH, increase access to AED services from underrepresented groups and achieve standardisation of AED services across localities.
Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS)/Primary Care Networks
Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) roles (opens in new window) are new jointly funded roles between the Primary Care Networks and GMMH. These roles will bridge the gap between primary and secondary care services, allowing GPs quicker access to mental health support for those patients who don’t routinely fit the criteria for secondary care services.
Complex Emotional and Relational Needs
A clinical model that improves access to evidence based psychological treatment with the clinical aspiration being to be able to offer psychological informed NICE adherent therapy and care for a great number of people with complex emotional and relational needs in Greater Manchester.
Specialist Community Mental Health Teams
The specialist community team transformation will develop a core model across GMMH that will focus on specialist interventions in non-crisis services for adults (aged 18+) and older adults with severe mental illness and the most complex needs. They will be multi-agency teams that ensure people’s all-round needs are met in a joined-up way, including mental and emotional health, physical health, and social issues (e.g. isolation, housing, finances, employment).
Community Rehabilitation Service
A new specialist community rehabilitation team to enable support closer to home by sustaining community living for people in Out of Area Placements through a whole system approach to rehabilitation.
Digital
Digital capabilities and data quality are essential building blocks for transforming services. The four key areas of work in our digital approach are:
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Care Planning Approach (CPA) Replacement: NHS England » Care Programme Approach: position statement (opens in new window).
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MaST Implementation: Management and Supervision Tool (MaST) - NHS Innovation Accelerator (nhsaccelerator.com) (opens in new window).
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System Interoperability: The seamless exchange of information across health and care settings is essential for realising the future vision of care in England.
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Core system readiness: Focus on the capability of core systems to support service changes is essential to transformation as is data quality in our ability to report and monitor the effectiveness of change and improvement of outcomes.
Individual Placement Support (IPS)
Working with the GMCA Working Well Programme and VCSE organisations, GMMH are increasing the number of Individual Placement Support Workers in mental health services (e.g. early intervention teams, Living Well teams, specialist teams). Read more: Individual Placements and Support Service | Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS FT (gmmh.nhs.uk) (opens in new window).
Living Well
Living Well teams have been established across Bolton, Salford, Manchester, Trafford and Wigan. These are teams that have been designed to deliver community care in the neighbourhoods where people live. They are made up of a range of partners providing a range of services. Read more: Living Well UK - Innovation Unit (opens in new window).
Physical Health/Serious Mental Illness
NHS England has a programme to improve physical health care for people with severe mental illness, including early intervention, to avoid development of preventable disease. We are looking at the physical health offer across all our localities to make sure that we are including health promotion in our treatment offer and that we are effectively monitoring and acting on the physical health needs of our service users with a severe mental illness.
What we have achieved
We began rolling out Living Well teams in a phased way so that we could learn lessons as we progressed:
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Manchester is prototyping (testing the model) in three of their neighbourhoods, with expected further expansion next year.
We have been working with many of our GP colleagues to introduce roles within GP surgeries.
We have employed additional Mental Health Practitioners to ensure adults and older adults with serious mental health needs in Salford, Bolton, Trafford, Wigan and Manchester can easily access the right mental health care, when they need it and as close to home as possible.
We have also established the following:
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The Home Engagement and Rehabilitation Team (HEART) support people who are in community placements and aims to reduce acute admissions by working with individuals to promote recovery and independence. They also provide in-reach into inpatient services to help aid the transition and to prevent relapse and readmission to hospital
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The Individual Placement and Support Team offers intensive, individually tailored support to help people with severe mental health difficulties choose and find the right job, with ongoing support for the employers and employee to help ensure they keep their job.
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The Adult Eating Disorder project has been undertaken with GMMH and Pennine Care’s Older Adults Service. It supports adults identified as having eating disorders and involves establishing First Episode Rapid Early Intervention for Eating Disorders (FREED) pathways, increasing access to services from under-represented groups and achieving standardisation across the localities.
Next steps
A lot of this work has been with new teams, so you might not be aware of the progress we have made and what this means for you.
We are pleased to let you know that we’ve delivered most of the expected increased capacity in community mental health services, and are now focusing on the final elements of the community mental health transformation.
The next step is the development of specialist teams that will redesign the community mental health team offer by bringing all the new and transformed community mental health services into a single, cohesive community mental health pathway.
There will be opportunities for you to get involved through design groups, workshops and surveys and ask questions along the way.
We’ll share progress this dedicated webpage and you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram where we will share the latest information.
This transformation of community mental health services represents a genuine investment and a genuine opportunity for meaningful change.
You can contact the Community Transformation Team via email: CTP@gmmh.nhs.uk.
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