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Consultation on Improving mental health services – your views wanted

 

Latest update

 

I wrote to you at the end of December to let you know about our plans for improving mental health services.

 

In my letter I said that we planned to put these proposals to local people for formal consultation in early February. 

 

In order for us to carry out more detailed work to develop our plans to talk to local people and gather their views, the consultation will now start on 8^th March 2010 and run until 1^st June 2010.

 

The consultation will involve a series of public meetings and stakeholder events, and people will also be able to tell us what they think in writing, by email and through a feedback form available via our website and a dedicated consultation document.

 

Please see below for further details.

 

We have appointed an independent analyst to review all the consultation feedback and report back to us on the main themes and issues that are raised.

 

What we are asking local people about

 

People who use mental health services say that they want to receive more treatment and care at home, and in the community if possible, rather than in hospital beds. 

 

Clinicians (doctors, nurses and other health professionals) also believe that providing more and better mental health services outside of hospital helps people to recover quicker and stay healthier.

 

Community mental health services have benefited from significant investment in recent years and are continuing to develop. 

 

They offer high quality support, close to people’s homes, ranging from open access services for people with mild to moderate mental health issues, to specialist 24-hour community services for people with more severe conditions who would in the past have been likely to need hospital admission.

 

The NHS in East Sussex wants people’s views on proposals to improve the range and performance of community mental health services, to introduce standards to make sure these improvements are measured and then to start reducing the number of mental health inpatient beds because fewer people will need to admitted to hospital

 

We would also like your feedback on the various options for the future for how many inpatient beds there could be in East Sussex and where they could be located.

 

We have been working with clinicians, service users and others with an interest in mental health to look at the ways we can improve services for local people.

 

It is important to stress that no changes to bed numbers will be made until suitable community services are in place to help and support people close to where they live.

 

Inpatient beds for people with dementia in East Sussex are not affected by the proposals set out in this consultation.

 

Our longer term aim is explore whether and how elderly people with dementia, often with a complex range of physical as well as mental health problems, could be better cared for in more shared-care wards within district general hospitals.

 

Any such changes would however be subject to a separate process of consultation.

 

Having your say

 

A full public consultation is vital to ensure that we are able to take account of the different points of view of all the local people we serve.

 

I look forward to hearing your views in the coming weeks.

 

Please note that the consultation runs from 8^th March 2010 to 1^st June 2010.

 

- We are holding three public meetings during March:

 

• 18^th March 2010, 10am-12pm, Weald Hall, Uckfield Civic Centre, Uckfield, TN22 1AE
• 24^th March 2010, 6.30-8.30pm, Royal Victoria Hotel, Marina, St Leonards on Sea, TN38 0BD
• 30^th March 2010, 2-4pm, Hardwick Suite, International Lawn Tennis Centre, Devonshire Park, College Rd, Eastbourne, BN21 4JJ

 

- You can also visit our website from Friday 5^th March 2010 to read the consultation document, find out more and have your say via an online feedback form.

 

http://www.esdw.nhs.uk/getting-involved/consultations/

 

or

 

http://www.hastingsandrother.nhs.uk/getting-involved/consultations/

 

- If you would like a copy of the consultation document (which includes a feedback form), would like more information, or have any comments or queries, please contact:

 

Joel Hufford,

Communications Manager,

Freepost SEA 2474,

BN8 2ZZ

Tel 01273 403550

E-mail: joel.hufford@esdwpct.nhs.uk

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Mike Wood,

Chief Executive,

NHS East Sussex Downs and Weald and NHS Hastings and Rother.

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