Issue - meetings

(25 minutes)

Sue Poole/Ann-Marie Scott (Healthwatch) to give a presentation on the findings of the CQC work on the experience of accessing health and social care services by those struggling with mental ill health during the pandemic.

The report includes Healthwatch findings and recommendations and the ask from the Board is to respond to these recommendations.

Sue Poole, Healthwatch, gave a presentation on the findings of the CQC work on the experience of accessing health and social care services by those struggling with mental ill health during the pandemic as detailed below:

What did we do?

•  Project was carried out in March 2022.

•  Used online surveys in Bath & NES and Swindon.

•  The majority of data collected during this focused period from an online and paper questionnaire, based on the CQC questionnaire.

•  One to one engagement sessions to gather specific feedback.

•  Attended group meetings/sessions with families and individuals experiencing mental ill-health.

•  Incorporated existing sources of feedback/reports so that people don’t have to repeat themselves (data collected by Local Healthwatch).

•  Ran a Twitter poll.

Key Findings in Bath & NES – what people told us

•  Long waiting lists impacting on the balance between people’s ability ‘to maintain positive aspects of their life v ‘unhelpful coping strategies’. 

•  The support on offer not meeting needs (gaps or lack of options). 

•  Difficulty in getting in contact with services or making appointments.

•  Combination of low expectations and poor previous experience with (perceived) poor attitudes of staff. 

Key Findings in Bath &NES – what organisations told us 

•  People with mental ill health represented 32% of families receiving support from Southside (family support and play). 

•  Challenges with the transition from children’s to adult services. 

•  Lack of social prescribing for children and young people.

•  An increase in number of children and young people showing signs of mental ill health. 

•  An urgent need for more trauma informed services, with a doubling in referrals for specialist trauma therapy from 2021-22. 

•  Gaps in access to clinical mental health services for serious mental ill health among homeless and Gypsy, Roma, Traveller and Boater communities. 

•  Carers tell us they were traumatised during Covid by the burden of caring without support services.

What we found – key findings across the whole BSW area

•  Waiting lists for referrals and support are very long and people felt they ‘get lost’.

•  People feel that mental health services should be preventative rather than reactive and reliant on very high thresholds for receiving care; ongoing support should be provided that is more tailored to the individual.

•  The transition from Children to Adult Services is problematic. The perception is that you have to start again.

•  Carers feel that they are not being listened to and as a result their own mental health is being adversely affected, as well as potentially impacting negatively on the care received by the ‘cared for’ person.

•  Care coordinators are over stretched with a high turnover which further impacts on the unpaid carers’ support and the mental health of the people for whom they are caring.

•  Lack of staff and poor staff attitudes, maybe partly due to pressure on staff resources.

•  Significant increases in referrals and requests for support reported over last year by service providers, especially third  ...  view the full minutes text for item 49