Over the last ten years, NHS Greenwich has developed its public mental health and well-being programme to address these factors in order to tackle mental health illness.
How it works
The Greenwich public health team worked in a ‘bottom-up’ way to raise the importance of population mental well-being by conducting mental health needs assessments and carrying out focused projects such as improving the physical environment and developing psychological therapy services. More recently, their focus has been on successfully communicating the importance of addressing mental well-being by demonstrating its impact on quality of life and diminishing disability-free life years across the population. NHS Greenwich and the council have implemented a variety of initiatives to address environmental, community development and physical health factors to improve mental well-being. These initiatives are summarised below.
Feeling Good about Where You Live
In 2003 the PCT and the council focused on the impact of the physical environment on mental well-being. Through a resident survey, 'Feeling Good about Where You Live', they identified the main factors associated with poor mental well-being. Low-cost improvements to buildings and homes have been made and community events have been hosted at schools.
NHS Health Checks Plus
The PCT built on the NHS Health Checks programme to target those less likely to attend GP practices by providing services in community venues and workplaces. It added a mental well-being filter to identify patients for referrals to mental health interventions and primary healthcare services.
Supporting you to be well in Greenwich (SPLASH) website
SPLASH is a local well-being website that provides information on available services and initiatives. It supports service providers to conduct referrals.
Mental health awareness raising
Greenwich Council has organised street events, walks to raise awareness for mental health and community activities to engage people in its ‘five ways to well-being’.
Primary mental healthcare – improving access to psychological therapies (IAPT) and GPs with special interests (GPwSI) in mental health
The PCT has set up a successful Time to Talk programme, increasing provision of talking therapies through the Department of Health’s IAPT programme. The PCT also funded posts for GPs with special interests in mental health to guide and inform the development of the primary care mental health services.
What it has achieved
NHS Greenwich has trebled investment in primary mental healthcare. This has led to an increase in the number of people accessing this service. Challenges still remain to ensure that this service reaches even more people. Increasing access to IAPT services to transform the service to deliver at a population level has been difficult. However, the needs assessment data and information from primary care suggests that if access improves as planned and waiting times continue to be reduced, this will result in fewer referrals to acute mental health services.
Further information
You can read this case study in full in our recent report ‘Public mental health and well-being – the local perspective’. This report is available to download in our publications library.
If you would like further information on our work on public mental health and well-being, please contact Nicola Stevenson, senior policy and research officer, at Nicola.stevenson@nhsconfed.org.