Issue - meetings

Gillian Mills, Integrated Care Director, NELFT, presented the report on the Health and Adult Services Select Committee’s (HASSC) scrutiny review on the ‘Potential Impact of the Recession and Welfare Reforms on Mental Health’.  The issue had been originally been part of the Board’s agenda for the 25 March 2014 Board, which had subsequently been inquorate.  The full scrutiny review could be obtained from the link within the report and attached as Appendix 1 to the Board report were the HASSC review executive summary and recommendations, which were:

·  Better information and advice is needed for residents, practitioners and those already known to mental health services on issues of welfare reform, advocacy, and support for coping with stress / depression/anxiety.

·  Recovery and resilience can be supported/built up through training and volunteering opportunities.

·  Peer support opportunities must be developed to prevent isolation, provide emotional support, and share knowledge.

·  The primary care depression pathway should be reviewed to ensure it is holistic and not overly reliant on the prescription of anti-depressants.

·  The effects of the austerity and welfare reforms should be measured so that the Council and its partners understand the impacts on residents and levels of need.

·  Demand on local services (advocacy, local emergency support, credit unions, welfare rights) should be closely monitored.

·  The Mental Health First Aid training programme should be delivered to professionals across the partnership and other local employers. Additional mental health awareness training should be provided where appropriate.

Ms Mills advised that the Mental Health Sub-Group had subsequently been tasked with producing a plan to meet those recommendations and the resulting Action Plan was attached as Appendix 2 to the report.  The Plan provided details on what areas the Sub-Group Members would lead on implementing within their respective bodies.  A user engagement event had also been arranged for October 2014 at which feedback on the Action Plan would be sought.

Councillor Carpenter commented that there were a number of base timelines mentioned in the Plan in regards to 2014 and asked if these had been agreed.  Ms Mills confirmed that they had been agreed and work was already going on to ensure the timescales were achieved.

The Board received the report and:

(i)   Noted the Mental Health Sub-Group had looked at seven recommendations from the Health and Adult Services Select Committee and had developed an Action Plan to take things forward, as set out in Appendix 2 to the report,

(ii)  Noted there would be an engagement event in October 2014 to obtain user feedback on the Action Plan, and

(iii)  Requested an update on the progress achieved is provided to the Board for six months thereafter.