Putting children and young people at the heart of services
In 2017, commissioners in Warwickshire re-tendered Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services following a whole system redesign co-produced with young people, parents and professionals.
They created an outcomes framework for Warwickshire focused on a tierless service and early intervention and prevention. Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust successfully submitted a joint bid with Coventry and Warwickshire Mind to deliver the pathway.
Rise is the new name, chosen by children and young people, for the emotional wellbeing and mental health services for children and young people in Warwickshire.
The Navigation Hub is the single point of entry where staff take calls and referrals. Clinical staff then make an assessment to help staff understand how the young person’s needs can be met by the new model.
Services then work together to provide interventions that meet the young person’s specific needs. Rise works closely with other local providers to ensure young people are referred to the right services – taking a whole system approach to the care and support people receive.
Rise works closely with schools, voluntary community services and Social Care and Primary Care (such as GP practices) to increase access for children and young people who need support.
Rise has established five community hubs across Warwickshire, where young people and families can access information, guidance and workshops and speak to a mental health worker. They also have a bus which goes to rural areas of Warwickshire and hard to reach communities to provide information and signposting.
Coventry and Warwickshire Mind employs primary mental health workers for each of the boroughs and districts in Warwickshire within the community hubs. They are also responsible for delivering the Big Umbrella in primary and secondary schools. The Big Umbrella offers a whole school approach providing mental health awareness and resilience interventions through assemblies, one-to-ones and class interventions.
In 2018-19 Rise worked with 20,529 young people through targeted interventions. They reported a 94 per cent improvement to their mental health through the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ).
The primary mental health workers work closely with the Primary Mental Health Team in CAMHS to deliver drop-in sessions within the community hubs. The Primary Mental Health Team also deliver the Boomerang programme – a resilience tool focusing on primary schools aimed at training staff in mental health awareness. Coventry and Warwickshire Mind also provide group-based sessions in anger, anxiety and low mood and self-esteem delivered locally.
The partnership is currently developing a detailed communications plan and the website. For example, The Dimensions Tool is a free-to-use app that provides information, support and tools to help meet people’s specific needs. CAMHS developed it with parents and carers, young people and clinicians.
Coventry and Warwickshire Mind deliver the Looked After Children Service in Warwickshire, working with CAMHS to ensure vulnerable children get the care and support they need. They’re setting up a multi-disciplinary team (MDT) to support this work for children presenting with more complex issues. The MDT will include CAMHS, Children’s Social Care and other key stakeholders.
Rise’s outcomes are monitored every quarter through a range of person-centred measures, such as whether young people feel part of the decision-making process or get a timely response. The partnership works hard to carry this out consistently. For example, it uses one NHS system to input data and recording.
The partnership is going from strength to strength with team building days between Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust and CW Mind and integrated meetings, governance structures and processes for RISE put in place.
Mums Matter is an eight-week intervention designed to support women in the perinatal period experiencing a mental health problem and finding it challenging to manage parenthood.
The project aims to:
The service’s interim evaluation shows decreasing levels of anxiety and depression, and increases in social capital, wellbeing and mental health knowledge.
Case study: Stacey’s story
Stacey has lived with depression since she was a teenager, but didn’t recognise what it was. When she had her first child her anxiety rose and she felt overwhelmed.
She had been trying to hold it all together. But when she had her second daughter, she finally opened up to her health visitor who put her in touch with the Mums Matter practitioner. She completed the Mums Matter course and is now a volunteer for the new group.
She now understands and can cope with her depression. She can also cope with the anxiety of being a mum and uses the tools from Mums Matter to help her.
Cambridge Peterborough South Lincolnshire Mind STOP Suicide campaign
STOP Suicide is a CPSL Mind-led campaign that aims to build awareness around how everyone can play their part in preventing suicide in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough – and beyond.
The campaign aims to create a social movement around suicide prevention. It’s a key part of the county-wide Zero Suicide Prevention Strategy, supported by local authorities, NHS teams, voluntary sector organisations, businesses and, vitally, members of the public. The public are empowered to take the campaign messages into their community as ‘campaign makers’. STOP Suicide’s award-winning approach encourages communities and people to help stop suicide by:
The campaign aims to enable direct and open conversations around the difficult subject of suicide. It seeks to break the taboo that prevents those at risk from getting the help they need.
In 2018 the campaign launched bus advertising, radio advertising, community roadshows, and a powerful film to raise awareness. It also harnessed real people’s stories in the press and on social media. It’s one of the most overt public campaigns around suicide prevention in the UK.