Developing Sustained and Integrated Inclusion for Adult Mental Health
THE PROJECT
HASCAS successfully applied to the Department of Health for a Section 64 Grant to investigate and facilitate work with health and social care communities in establishing sustained and integrated inclusion for adult mental health.
There are two aims for the project:
In addition a further aim is to provide the health and social care communities in the project with the opportunity to access a network of other like-minded people seeking to make social inclusion a reality in their integrated pathways.
HASCAS will be working closely with the nine Regional Government Offices which have started a project to build local partnerships to promote employment and social inclusion for people with mental health problems. The Project would be considerably strengthened if we could work with one health and social care community in each of the nine regions which has started to develop partnerships to help people with mental health problems to access help and support at an early stage in their illness, and thereby to remain in work or gain access to meaningful employment as soon as they feel able, with support as required. Such sites could act as exemplars for the Project.
PROGRESS TO DATE
There are nine PCTs signed up with the Project together with their partner organisations from a wide geographical spread across England and with a mix of demographic profiles which will allow the project to test the toolkit effectively in a range of different populations. The eight PCTs are:
In addition Sandwell PCT has offered to be a demonstration site and allow the Project to visit and see the work it has being undertaking with its partners to develop effective partnerships with a range of agencies.
A Steering Group for the project has been established and includes representatives from:
Timetable for the Project
It took longer than expected to attract the nine PCTs and as a result the programme is about three months behind its target for teams to visit each PCT and look at the work it is doing with its partner organisations.
The first stage of the work is to identify areas where there is good practice, perhaps one site from each of the nine Regional Government Offices, and Sandwell PCT, the only volunteer thus far attracted. The sites will be visited by HASCAS teams comprising staff from the NHS, Local Authorities, DWP, Housing agencies and Job Centre Plus to check that they are providing integrated help and to determine whether they could be developed elsewhere.
Following this the second stage is to work with the nine local communities to help them develop integrated working so that adults with mental health problems can access the help they need through a system providing holistic care across the health and social care community including housing and employment.
The original timetable is shown below but needs to be altered once the nine PCTs and their partner organisations have had their first meeting on 5 December. We are confident we can catch up during the first three/four months of 2008 so the second year of the Project can start more or less on track.
Project Plan Timetable
Work to be Undertaken |
To be Completed by |
Recruit members of Project Steering Group and hold First Meeting |
30 June 2007 |
Recruit the Pilot Sites and hold Initial Workshop |
31 July 2007 |
Visits to areas identified as having good practice |
30 September 2007 |
Local Steering Groups established and hold first meeting |
30 November 2007 |
Second Meeting of Project Steering Group |
14 December 2007 |
Review visits to each of the 4 Pilot Sites and Review Reports done |
31 March 2008 |
Second Meeting of the Local Steering Groups |
30 April 2008 |
Third Meeting of Project Steering Group |
31 May 2008 |
Ongoing work with the 4 Pilot Sites |
30 June 2008 |
Third Meeting of the Local Steering Groups |
31 July 2008 |
Second Workshop with the 4 Pilot Sites |
30 September 2008 |
Fourth Meeting of Project Steering Group |
31 October 2008 |
Development of Toolkit |
31 December 2008 |
Follow-up Review Visits to the 4 Pilot Sites |
31 January 2009 |
Fifth Meeting of Project Steering Group |
15 February 2009 |
Fourth Meeting of the Local Steering Groups |
15 February 2009 |
Draft Toolkit tested in the 4 Pilot Sites |
15 February 2009 |
Adjustments to Toolkit made and tested in the 4 Pilot Sites |
29 February 2009 |
Fifth Meeting of the Local Steering Groups |
29 February 2009 |
Sixth Meeting of Project Steering Group |
29 February 2009 |
Report and Toolkit Delivered to the Department of Health |
31 March 2009 |
Conference to Disseminate Findings and Launch Toolkit |
31 May 2009 |
CONCLUSION
The Project is now up and running and I will be visiting each of the nine PCTs in the next six weeks prior to the first meeting on 5 December when they meet together to share their work thus far and to identify what they want to gain from the Project.
It would be helpful to learn from you what is happening in your regions with this agenda and whether you have any examples of good practice which we could visit to gain information. It would also be helpful to have any suggestions you may have on how we can improve the Project and how the outcomes from it can best be disseminated.
For more information contact:
Ian Allured
Tel:
0207 307 2892
Email: Click here