Sara's Blog - October 2018
This month Sara talks about external reviews, gives us a quick round up from World Mental Health Day 2018, a quick update from the Leeds Partnership Executive Group and finishes off (as usual) with some great reasons for us to be proud.
Hello,
The last four weeks has been a bit of a review fest with staff taking part in two external reviews; one by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and one by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) looking at the whole Leeds system.
The HSE’s inspection, which was our first one ever, focused on how we manage violence and aggression experienced by staff, as well as how we manage musculoskeletal injuries in the workplace. The inspection team spoke to seven teams across the Trust and have not raised any issues with us so far.
They have not yet concluded the inspection as they are still reviewing some audits and documentation. However, the feedback I most wanted to share is that without exception they said they were blown away by the passion and dedication of every staff member they spoke to, and would not hesitate to recommend our Trust as a place to receive treatment. I’m taking this a huge endorsement from an inspection team mainly focused on policy and procedure. A more detailed report which will set out any areas for improvement will be circulated later in the year.
During the same week the CQC completed their system wide review of Leeds, focusing on the care of people over 65 and looking at how well partners work together. Their initial brief was not to include mental health in the review, which as you can imagine, didn’t sit well with us. So we put our case forward and I’m pleased to say we were included in the review. Many thanks to all staff involved. I’m hoping to provide some verbal feedback to Trust Board on 25 October.
The CQC’s findings will be formally reported to the Leeds Health and Wellbeing Board with copies shared with all relevant partners across health and social care. We, alongside partners, will agree a joint action plan to progress any recommendations they make.
World Mental Health Day – 10 October 2018
There was loads of activity around World Mental Health Day this year. I’ve pulled together a quick flavour of some of it.
At the centre of it was a flagship event entitled Mental Health in a Changing World: Celebrating our Contribution. I was delighted to be a part of this celebration of fellow nurses and allied health professionals, and hear an exhilarating speech from Professor Dame Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu who shared her intensely personal account ‘From Shame to Dame’. The day ended with a wonderful video montage of staff giving their reasons for being proud to work at the Trust. You can watch it here:
Inside our low secure forensic services – a podcast!
Staff and service users have worked together to give us a unique insight into life within our low secure forensic service in York.
Inside Clifton House is a short podcast featuring John, Ben, Stuart and Melissa who have all received care and treatment there. We published their stories to help give an insight into their lives and experiences of mental health services and to help us tackle the stigma that is so often attached to mental illness. You can listen to it via our website here.
Reaching out to people across Leeds
I was delighted to see a programme of drop-in sessions to support people in Leeds struggling with their mental health is now being offered city-wide.
This is a great example of partnership working where we’ve teamed up with mental health charity Touchstone to offer support to anyone who may be feeling isolated or alone. Check out the details of what’s on offer on our website.
Leeds Partnership Exec Group update
I am a member of the Leeds Partnership Executive Group (PEG). When we met in October our discussions focused on:
- preparation for the system CQC inspection
- an update on the schemes funded by the integrated better care fund (IBCF) as well as opening up the scheme for further bids
- a decision to put Leeds forward as one of four pilot sites nationally to work up the model of population health management, and
- updates from the newly established provider committees in common.
Our Chief Operating Officer Joanna Forster Adams is leading on submission of bids to the IBCF to support work on patient flow and reducing delayed transfers of care. The population health management pilot will involve approximately 20 staff from across the partnerships receiving additional development and support to work up what this approach would look like and deliver for Leeds.
This month’s reasons to be proud
October saw the launch of our Workforce Race Equality Network. The WREN aims to make a real difference to the experience and advancement of black and minority ethnic staff in our Trust. This is something we’re prioritising following feedback through staff survey and other routes.
Our Learning Disability community team have been shortlisted in the annual Nursing Times Awards for work by the Health Facilitation Team. The ceremony is on 31 October – best of luck!
Congratulations to our Personal Disorders Service (winners and pictured below), the recently-launched CONNECT Eating Disorders service (winners) and our Rainbow Alliance (highly commended) for their success at the Positive Practice in Mental Health Awards 2018.
More credit is due to our estates and facilities staff for the work they have been doing behind the scenes to ensure we maintain our waste management service. The Trust has been affected by the clinical waste situation widely reported in the media and colleagues have put a contingency plan in place to manage this.