Community Based Mental Health Services, Norfolk and Waveney
Download (PDF 3.07 MB)Summary of report content
This is the final report on a three-year project. Healthwatch Norfolk was commissioned by Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board to conduct an independent person-centred evaluation of how well the Community Transformation Steering Group delivered their plan to transform community based mental health services in Norfolk and Waveney.
For this final report the focus has been on feedback from people with serious mental illness (SMI) who use community based mental health services. Healthwatch Norfolk. collected their feedback through a public survey, interviews and other sources of feedback.
149 people responded to the survey. People said they had used a range of community based mental health services, with most people using mental health support through their doctor’s surgery. People also talked about the difficulties accessing services.
The research found that there have been improvements and the mental health support via doctor’s surgeries has been positive. There were also improvements with the Perinatal Service and the introduction of the wellbeing hubs (Rest Hub and Steam Café). However, most people were negative about their experiences with community based mental health services. Areas of concern continue to be the crisis team, physical health checks and that people with a personality disorder / complex emotional needs continue to face stigma.
The report contains five recommendations.
- Ensure that adults with serious mental illness have reliable and consistent support.
- Ensure that adults with serious mental illness have regular ongoing support to minimise the need for crisis intervention.
- Do not lose the valuable voice of people with lived experience.
- Keep the mental health roles in primary care.
- Finalise the VCSE strategy and partnership with the VCSE sector.