Community Mental Health Transformation

Healthwatch Leeds aimed to provide some ideas as to how the local Community Mental Health Transformation programme can do this during its Phase 2 rollout in Leeds. It focuses on the four Local Care Partnership (LCP) areas targeted by Phase 2 – Armley; Beeston and Middleton (Inner South); Bramley, Wortley and Middleton; and Woodsley and Holt Park – as well as providing some introductory information in its Appendices about four communities identified by the Community Mental Health Transformation programme as needful of further study at this point. They spoke to 800 people.

When respondents were getting mental health support, for the most part they felt it was working well for them. People value consistent, reliable, ongoing mental health support. When people weren’t getting support, they sometimes felt this was because services either weren’t there at all, or weren’t there for them and their needs. On the whole, this was due to a combination of having been discharged from services, not knowing what services exist, and having been turned down when asking for help in the past.

Most people felt that where they lived impacted on their mental health to some degree, so there is real value in understanding mental health from a very local perspective.

In all areas barring Bramley, Wortley and Middleton, there was a fairly even split between those respondents who preferred to get support formal NHS settings, those who preferred less traditional community-based settings, and those who suggested they would feel comfortable in both.

Less than two in five wanted services provided by phone.

The report contains a number of recommendations about the quality of current mental health support, access to mental health support for those not currently receiving it, improving local environments and places where support can be received.