Experiences of mental health support in the community
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In Sheffield over 95,000 people (17.1% of the adult population) have a diagnosis of either depression or anxiety, and over 5,000 people (0.9% of the adult population) have a diagnosis of severe mental illness such as psychosis or severe depression. The number of people with diagnosis of mental health conditions has continually risen over the last two decades.
Access to good quality of mental health services continues to be a significant concern to the people of Sheffield, echoing concerns raised with local Healthwatch throughout England. 99 out of 152 (65%) local Healthwatch highlighted mental health as a major priority for their communities in 2018.
Healthwatch Sheffield regularly hears from local people that they would like to see improvements in mental health support. In response to this, in October 2016 Healthwatch Sheffield published a report that explored the views and experiences of mental health crisis support in the city.
Concerns raised included varying quality of care, with half of those who had experienced a crisis saying that they felt the services or professionals they dealt with did not know how to give them the care they needed. Almost three quarters of staff (71%) told us that they thought current services were worse than those provided two years before. We made recommendations based on our findings and we continue to work with the Sheffield Crisis Care Concordat Implementation Group to support progress in implementing them.
In 2017 they decided to focus on experiences of the support available in the community setting (near to or at home) as this is where most people with mental health conditions access their care. In recent years there has been a steady increase in the proportion of people with common mental health disorders who access mental health support in this way.
Through engagement activities, the review of their existing data set and the survey, they heard 450 experiences (some people may have completed the survey and provided feedback through one of the other routes).
Through the findings the report contains 5 recommendations in relation to referrals, communication between staff, information providing and engagement.