Improving and prioritising the physical health of people with Severe Mental Illness was the key topic discussed by over 80 attendees at a Humber, Coast and Vale Health and Care Partnership Clinical Assembly meeting last month.
The Partnership’s Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Collaborative Programme met on 21st January for the second annual Clinical Assembly, bringing together clinicians across the Partnership to collectively and proactively work on programmes to improve physical health inequalities for those with Severe Mental Illness.
The aim of the session was for clinicians to use their experience and expertise to influence and shape areas of work tackling health inequalities, a priority set out in the NHS Long Term Plan and an area of work which has been awarded additional funding within the Partnership.
Key speaker, Dan Burningham, Mental Health Programme Director, NHS City and Hackney CCG, discussed the excellent work taking place in the City and Hackney CCG area to improve the physical health of people with Severe Mental Illness. City and Hackney CCG have won a HSJ award for their innovative work in this area.
Attendees took part in lively debate on the experiences of NHS City and Hackney CCG in regards to its collaborative efforts to establish a GP alliance to enable practices to work more closely together to address health inequalities. Initiatives in the area have included employing health care assistants to complete health checks in people’s homes and developing and sharing a dashboard to monitor progress across each practice.
A summary of the seven ways to improve and increase physical health checks was shared by Dan Burningham and these included creating a forum for joint working across primary and secondary care and reducing the need for face-to-face contact by delivering health checks online or via telephone.
This valuable input will support the Partnership to improve physical health checks for those with Severe Mental Illness and a Steering Group has now been established involving all Humber, Coast and Vale CCG’s.
If you would like a copy of the slides from the Clinical Assembly, or for further information, please contact the Programme Office at hnf-tr.hcvmhpmo@nhs.net. Further Clinical Assemblies dedicated to Mental Health and Primary Care, Eating Disorders and Learning Disabilities will be taking place in due course.