The Board received the report of Phil Carr (strategy & policy manager HAC) and Carrie Kilpatrick (Commissioning Manager) on the Mental Health Strategy Refresh.

In response to the report the following comments were made by the Board:

Benchmarking:

A member asked for a benchmarking exercise to take place on the level of mental health need in the borough compared with neighbouring boroughs.

Impact of adverse childhood experiences:

There was a question on to what extent the strategy considered parenting and adverse childhood experiences. It was noted this was mentioned in the third priority in reference to perinatal care but not throughout the life course.

Strategy alignment:

The Board noted it was important for the mental health strategy to align with the Health and Wellbeing Strategy and Long Term Plan to ensure consistency especially around the ‘I’ statements.  In addition to this the Substance Misuse Strategy was identified as another key strategy to align with due to the interconnection with duel diagnosis. Officers said it was an opportunity to strengthen engagement between the two strategies.

The Chair suggested it would be useful to appoint a substance misuse representative to join the Health and Wellbeing Board.

Governance of the Strategy

Members asked who was responsible for the overall governance of the strategy. It was noted that there was a mental health strategy working group but the Health and Wellbeing Board was ultimately responsible for the strategy’s sign off.  It was decided that a Health and Wellbeing Board member should participate in the mental health strategy working group to oversee the work.

Alternative solutions

There was a comment that the pressure on the Adult Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme (IAPT) to address need and the inevitability of having to look at broader ways of accessing care, such as self-care or digital support, was not mentioned in the strategy document.

Housing:

A Member raised a point about training housing officers to recognise mental health and the implications of poor housing on mental health. Officers explained that the strategy was committed to providing mental health first aid training which would include to housing officers and mental health would be considered in the Place strategy. The Chair asked if there was any way of monitoring the commitments made by other strategies. Officers explained that the delivery plan would link to commitments made and monitor progress.

Engagement

The Board expressed concern that the strategy had not sufficiently conducted outreach and engagement work, particularly with the BME and other risk groups identified in the report. The Chair said that given high levels of mental health amongst the BME community in the borough, it was imperative greater outreach work was conducted and that a one size fits all strategy would not serve the needs of borough.

The Chair used the example of the reclassification of Khat to a class A drug and its effects on the Somali community, as an example of the depth of engagement she would have like the strategy to present in relation to BME mental health. Other Members advised that the Bangladeshi Mental Health Forum were running a series of mental health workshops throughout the month that the strategy could benefit from.

The Chair said she could not approve the strategy until further engagement had been undertaken with the eight risk groups. Officers noted the comments.

ACTION:

1. For the Mental Health Strategy to be placed on the Forward Plan for discussion at a future meeting.

2. For a substance misuse representative to join the Health and Wellbeing Board.

RESOLVED:

1. To not approve the strategy. For the Mental Health Strategy to come back to the Board at a future meeting having taken note of Member comments and concerns.