Agenda item

Matthew Cole, Director of Public Health, introduced the report, which provided information on the mental health needs of the child, adolescent and adult populations of the Borough and recommendations for discussion, with a view to the mental health services in the Borough moving towards parity of esteem with physical health services.  Matthew drew the Board’s attention to page 31 of the agenda and said that it was a telling statement the number of adults and children with mental health issues was not know, however, even from the data available it was certain that locally there was a much higher incidence of diagnosed psychosis than the England average.

Matthew stressed that this was not a service that was failing.  Once people were in the system the outcomes were good.  The problems were not getting people to ask for help early on and too few people were being diagnosed early enough at Primary Care level.  What partners also needed to look at was a health economy that centred on outcomes.  It was clear that the earlier treatment and support was started, the better the outcome was for the individual.  It would help to keep young people in school and at home and this would have a significant impact on their future life chances.  Keeping people functioning well and in employment also reduced homelessness and family breakdowns.

Discussion was held on how diagnosis and a working diagnosis in the young were recorded and on the possible delays between diagnosis and treatment, especially for the young people.  Cllr Carpenter commented on the talking therapies and how access had improved with no significant waiting times to see therapists.  Cllr Carpenter raised concern about mental health support for people from ethnic minority communities.  NELFT responded that Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) access level was 14% against a target of 15%.  In addition, the outcome for NELFT was above national average, as the national target was seven days but in LBBD it was 3 days.  The local services were one of the best in London.

Discussion was held on the inaccuracies in the data.  NELFT advised that data was available and it could be provided and circulated to partners.  There was clearly a need to do a matching exercise to see if individuals were being double counted or were missing from different partners’ data.

Marie Kearns, Healthwatch, was concerned that there may be a blockage in the system which was causing delays to initial support.

Cllr Turner commented on the A&E presentations and felt that it was clear that work needed to be done with BHRUT to ensure that there was much more awareness and training of mental health for local A&E staff.  He felt it was important that there was a pathway through from A&E without referrals to GPs. 

In response to a question from Cllr Turner in regards to the IAPT, Matthew Cole advised that the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) did not have any information on patient experience at the moment. 

Matthew also advised on a pilot that was being undertaken and that the results of the pilot would be reviewed in October.  Dr Moghal said that initial feedback from his colleagues was the pilot was having a positive effect and flows at the door were certainly better since the pilot started and he looked forward to seeing the results of the review.

Having received and discussed the contents of the report,

The Board:

(i)  Noted the changes since the April report, and in particular those set out in sections 3.5, 3.6, 3.8, 4,2, 4.3.4.4, 4.5, of the report; 

(ii)  Directed the Mental Health Sub-Group to produce a detailed Delivery Plan to address mental health prevention, treatment and recovery services for adults and children in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham;

(iii)  Requested six monthly progress and performance reports on the implementation of the Delivery Plan;

(iv)  Asked that a detailed understanding of the mental health needs of Barking and Dagenham children and adolescents be delivered through a children and adolescent mental health needs assessment; and

(v)   Requested that the Mental Health Sub-Group takes the recommendations of the Mental Health Needs Assessment into account when developing a Mental Health Strategy and looking at the future re-design of mental health services.