Agenda
Mental Health Citizen Panel
Date: 15th December 2015 Venue: Quaker Meeting House
Time: 10.30am – 12.30pm Frodsham Street, Chester
Item / Topic / Action1 / Welcome, Introduction and Apologies
Present:
Pamela Fox, Gus Cairns, Caroline Jones, Richard Berry, Natalie Lloyd, Lisa Rossetti, Carol Barton, Alan Barton, David Pane, Elizabeth Bott, Emma King, Jonathan Hamilton, Rob Robertson, Lesley Singleton, Emma King, John McCormick; Dave Parkinson
Apologies:
Chris Lynch; Fran Wilson; Anthony Groom; Julie Sheen; Helen Davis; Bev Spicer; Helen Edge; Sandra Lewis.
2 / Review of the minute of the last meeting
The group discussed what format they would like the minutes in. It was suggested that the group receive action points, however some members objected to that, as they felt their contributions wouldn’t be recorded in the minutes and therefore potentially lost.
GC asked a question about how points raised in the launch report can be followed up. JT informed GC we can get feedback directly from commissioners and providers, but that citizens’ panel needs to identify priorities and a mechanism to follow these up.
3 / Review of Panel Terms of Reference
The group reviewed the TOR. Due to an administrative error an older version of the terms of reference was sent out prior to the meeting. The group asked if they had any objection to the terms of reference. The group queried the statement, “The citizens’ panel is associated with, but independent from Healthwatch Cheshire West”. MH explained that this allowed the panel to be independent, to be able to challenge the Healthwatch provider if it feels it needs to, whilst maintaining a link to the Healthwatch organisation.
CJ mentioned that the links to Healthwatch were important, and that some of the Healthwatch enter and view members will be carrying out inspections on acute mental health wards at Bowmere hospital shortly. In the future, the citizens’ panel could have a role in that work. JT agreed, that potentially in the future, members of the citizens’ panel could be trained to deliver enter and views visits within mental health settings.
4 / Mental Health Commissioning in West Cheshire
The group received a presentation and question and answer session with Lesley Singleton, Mental Health Commissioner (CWAC & West Cheshire CCG)
Lesley informed the group that she is currently working within a joint role, working both for West Cheshire CCG and Cheshire West and Chester Council. Lesley shared the local commissioning priorities for mental health which were set last year after reviewing strategies at a national and local level. There are seven current priority areas:
· Stigma
· Recovery and Relapse
· Personality Disorder
· Urgent Mental Health
· Dementia
· Children and Adolescents Mental Health Service (CAMHS)
· Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT).
A project board is currently looking at what works well within those areas, and what doesn’t work as well. They are looking at co-production to develop these work streams, and have linked into some work National Voices are running around co-production.
One of the current projects is the setting up of an Integrated Provider Hub. The hub aims to provide a one stop shop where a person can access a range of support provision to meet their individual needs. The end user will get more bespoke care package which supports their recovery. A task and finish group have come together to look at developing the Integrated Provider Hub, and it is hoped this work will be finished within 12 months.
Lesley fed back some of the changes she made to the psychiatric liaison service following time she spent with the dementia nurse service. In February, the dementia nurse service was found to be much more pro active than the psychiatric liaison service. They don’t spend their time in the office waiting to be contacted by wards but actively visit wards / teams to find out where there were clients to whom they could offer support.
The office for the psychiatric liaison service has been moved to the reception area of the Countess of Chester hospital, and training is being put into place to support the change in working practice so that the psychiatric liaison service end up working with people as they walk through the doors of the hospital, not when they are called for by medical professionals.
Mapping of services – the citizens’ panel asked whose role it was to map services. Lesley informed the panel that this piece of work is currently being carried out by Cathy Walsh across the five mental health teams in West Cheshire. The question was asked whether it would be useful for a map to be generated with all the mental health provision included within it. The citizens’ panel felt this would be a useful thing to look at in the future.
Lead GPs – There are two lead GPs with responsibility for mental health in West Cheshire supported by a secondary care lead.
Lesley informed the group that the lead GP provides an interface between the CCG and General Practice, ensuring that GPs’ views are taken into account when commissioning services.
5 / Links with other groups
Rob Robertson gave an update on some of the areas he is working in within mental health, including the Mental Health Alliance which is designed to strengthen the voluntary sector voice around mental health.
Rob also sits on the Integrated Provider Hub task and finish group, and would like to take back feedback from the citizens’ panel to that meeting. Rob believes the Mental Health Citizens’ panel is important as it has the potential to ensure that the views of the patients/public are listened to
6 / Next Steps
Many of the participants spoke about issues at A&E where the mental health awareness of staff isn’t great. A few people mentioned that this is an issue for the police as well in their experience. DP said that the police lack awareness of mental health and learning disabilities. It was suggested that we invite the police to the meeting.
Questions about the liaison physiatrist’s service were asked. RR raised the point that they are not in service 24 hours a day
Not enough help available for people with dual diagnoses.
Questions were asked about crisis service at the Countess.
GC raised that some priorities came out of the report. The group felt that issues around emergency care are something the group would like to look at further. GC spoke about the mental health needs assessment. The current need assessment is six years out of date.
Questions were also asked about Macclesfield hospital. Would Healthwatch CWAC be able to do enter and view visits in Macclesfield due to some of our residents using the hospital? JT said this should be possible, and we would look to work with neighbouring Healthwatch.
An issue was raised by a member of the panel that when her husband required a mental health acute bed (as a Chester resident) he was given a bed in Macclesfield because there were no beds available in Chester. However at the time they knew of Macclesfield patients with beds at Bowmere (Countess of Chester Hospital). It doesn’t seem the hospital is working hard on repatriating patients to their local hospital.
They also made a comment about the crisis team –“You phone up in crisis and their advice is to have a cup of tea or go for a ten minute walk. I’m phoning whilst my husband is in a ball. The suggestion to go to A&E isn’t helpful, as I’m struggling to get to A&E. The first port of call is the crisis line, however it sometime feels I know more than the professional I’m calling for help in a crisis situation.”
When you are in crisis, you need to go somewhere where you will be safe, at the moment the only option is the hospital.
There needs to be an option in the middle, somewhere for people to receive support who don’t need a hospital admission at this stage.
A member spoke of the situation she often finds herself in, where she knows her partner is going into crisis and is likely to be admitted onto a mental health ward shortly, however he’s not at the point of admission, and she is powerless other than to watch and wait for her partner’s wellbeing to deteriorate to the point that he is admitted to hospital.
7 / Actions for next meeting
The Mental Health Citizens’ Panel needs to set priorities for its work programme moving forward.
One way of doing this is to separate priorities for the West Cheshire and Vale Royal areas.
Healthwatch would then support the panel to progress work against these priority areas alongside key partners.
8 / Communication between meetings
Deferred to due lack of time
9 / AOB
None
Next Meeting Date/ time: to be confirmed