The public’s experience of mental health services in North Yorkshire

Healthwatch North Yorkshire was commissioned by the North Yorkshire and York Leadership Alliance to undertake an engagement exercise to help it understand adults’ experiences of accessing mental health and wellbeing services across North Yorkshire.

A survey, focus and one-to-one interviews to engage with a wide range of local people  (360) including, the farming community, young people transitioning into adult mental health services (aged 16-24), neurodiverse people, veterans and members of the armed forces community and their family members, older people, people living in temporary accommodation and carers.

Fundamental issues with the entirety of the mental health system were apparent from the feedback. One person said they have lost all motivation to even try to get better and feel like the mental health “system” is waiting for them to die instead of enabling them to live. This sentiment was strongly reflected in the feedback received, with many saying they have lost faith in the mental health system due to previous poor experiences.

Themes from the feedback included:

• support is often not person centred and does not reflect people’s complex lives and the multiple issues that affect their mental health
• the value of listening to and supporting family/friends and carers of people with a mental health issue
• support is often inconsistent, with people passed around different services and only offered short term support that can be helpful for a time, but often does not have any long-lasting benefit.
• The well-known barrier of stigma was evident, but other barriers to accessing services included a lack of flexibility in the days or times that services are available and issues with public transport.
• The lack of information on what services and support are available was a recurring issue.
• The difference good staff can make was clear, with many saying they have experienced a lack of understanding and empathy from many staff across the system, leaving some people feeling dejected and demotivated to ask for help again.
• Crisis services are overwhelmed and not functioning effectively. The number of people needing crisis support further highlights the issues with the rest of the system as if the system was working effectively many would not be reaching crisis point.
• There was also evidence of pockets of good practice within the system, from primary care to secondary care and care from North Yorkshire Council, charities and community groups.