Long Term Plan Greater Manchester Mental Health Services Report

The 10 local Healthwatch in the Greater Manchester area engaged 45 people who gave feedback on mental health services. This was part of the network-wide NHS Long Term Plan (LTP) project. 

Healthwatch asked people to comment on waiting times, overall experience and suggested improvements at two separate points in their patient journey;

• From first presentation to diagnosis

• From diagnosis to commencement of support

They also asked people to tell them about the support they currently receive, support they would like to receive or would be interested to try. Finally, they asked those who had multiple conditions to what extent they felt that those other conditions were taken into account in their treatment or support.

The report found the most commonly mentioned issue, in terms of prevention / early intervention, was waiting times to access services. In particular people talked about the lack of support or even basic contact between assessment and referral. For most people this was a period of many weeks. People described feeling forgotten and abandoned by services during this period. The weight of the comments around personalisation suggest that some people feel that their problems have not always been treated holistically. A number of people report inappropriate initial diagnosis later rectified when full life story histories have been taken, for example. This report seems to show that people with mental health conditions are not routinely offered support options that involve technology or social prescribing. The report also seems to suggest an appetite from mental health patients engage with these forms of support.

The Greater Manchester Health and Social Care (GMHSC) Partnership responded to this report.