Sara's blog - March 2019

Hello, my name is Sara...

I wanted to start this month’s blog by acknowledging the terrible events that unfolded in New Zealand earlier this month. My sympathies of course go out to the victims and to all those who have lost loved ones. While it happened on the other side of the world, I know that there may be people much closer to home who have been affected. I urge anyone who is experiencing an emotional response to the atrocity to speak to someone. There are details of local services that can help on the MindWell website. For staff, there are a number of ways to get support, including through our occupational health service and our Employee Assistance Programme.

The wellbeing of our staff is a huge priority for me personally as well as for the Trust. We know that the work our staff do can be emotionally and psychologically demanding and, if they’re not well supported it can affect their health and wellbeing as well as the quality of the care they provide to our service users and carers. While we have a number of services and initiatives in place, we know there is still more we can do to make the Trust a healthy place to work.

What the ‘more’ looks like was discussed at length by our senior leadership team when we met recently for a workshop on culture and leadership. We looked closely at what staff have told us in this year’s Staff Survey results about workplace stress and we reflected on how our behaviour as individuals should role model and reinforce the culture of self-care that we want to see embedded across our Trust. I manage my own wellbeing by making sure that I get away on holiday with my family when I can. My little girl, Cara, once told me that she loves to go on holiday because it’s “our special family time”, and so I have all my annual leave planned at least 12 months in advance. In fact next week we’re heading to Cyprus for some of that all-important family time (don’t worry, I’ve made sure we’ve all got at least six months left on our passports, as per the latest Brexit advice!)

Leeds Health and Care Academy

Keeping with the theme of a mentally healthy and supported workforce, Leeds is gearing up for the launch of its very own Health and Care Academy in April. The Academy will bring together the NHS, the city council and universities to collaborate on a range of workforce issues. It’s a really exciting concept that will help us to bridge boundaries and improve working lives across the city. Improving employees’ mental wellbeing is a key priority and one way to do this is by training people in the workplaces across Leeds to be ‘mental health first aiders’ – a role which can encourage people to talk more openly about mental health, reduce stigma and help signpost colleagues to relevant support. I’m delighted that I’ve been asked to speak about this very subject at one of the Academy’s first events at the end of March.

Veterans’ Mental Health Complex Treatment Service

I’ve been out and about this month and paid a visit our specialist veterans’ mental health team, ahead of the service’s first anniversary. The service launched in April last year, and offers trauma-focused therapies and other support to veterans, including help with substance misuse, physical health, employment, accommodation, relationships and finances.

We are one of only five NHS trusts in the country to be providing this service, and the team work alongside Combat Stress, the UK’s leading veterans’ mental health charity, to deliver it across the north of England. I’m absolutely delighted to say that the service has been commissioned for a further two years, taking us to 2022.

Forensic Services

I also headed over to York this month for another visit to our forensic services, where the team’s improvement journey continues at pace. All of its nursing posts have now been filled which is great news and testament to the hard work the team have put in to improving the quality of care and staff experience. This has also been recognised by the CQC, who gave great feedback during a routine Mental Health Act visit in February.

National Inpatient Centre for Psychological Medicine

In February, the Trust Board heard a very personal story from Natalka, a young woman whose life has been transformed thanks to the support of our the National Inpatient Centre for Psychological Medicine (NICPM). The NICPM is an eight bedded highly specialist unit that helps people with medically unexplained symptoms. The service takes patients from across the country, and Natalka was keen that this kind of expertise should be available more locally to people. I’ve written to Claire Murdoch, who is the NHS England lead for mental health, to ask for her support to get the service nationally commissioned so we can improve access and share expertise across the country.

Community services redesign

This week marks the launch of a range of new and dedicated community health services. The project has been three years in the making, and includes new dedicated community teams for both younger and older adults, a new 24/7 mental health crisis service and an intensive home treatment team.

During 2018 the Trust involved thousands of staff, service users, carers and partners in shaping the new services, and lots of their suggestions have been implemented in the new service models. These changes will improve the quality of care we offer to people, ensuring timely access to the right specialist health staff. We’ll also be increasing our provision of home-based treatment over hospital-based treatment, which we know is how most people want to access community mental health services.

This has been a huge project, and I’m really grateful to everyone who has contributed. It will make a huge difference to the thousands of people we care for in the community.

You can find more information about the new services on our website.

Reasons to be proud

Finally, of the many reasons I have to be continually proud of our staff and their achievements, this month I want to celebrate one of our core trainees, Dr Zoe Goff. Zoe has been awarded the Mohsen Naguib Prize by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Old Age Faculty. Zoe was recognised for her research into how some medication used to treat the symptoms of Alzheimer’s, Lewy Body and mixed dementia can affect the heart. This is a wonderful achievement – well done Zoe!

I’d like to end with a big thank you to our colleagues at Interserve. Many of our estates and facilities staff are employed by Interserve, including our facilities management, building maintenance, catering, cleaning and grounds maintenance teams.  As you may have seen in the media, the company went into administration last week.  Despite the uncertainty about the future and their own jobs, Interserve staff have continued to come into work to support our staff and patients, day in, day out. I am so appreciative of how they’ve approached the recent changes, and I know staff across the Trust are too. Thank you.