We need a system of psychological safety… the best solution is in the middle somewhere.
Louise Patmore, Programme Lead Participation MH Collaborative, SCHP
Louise Patmore is leading the mental health collaborative programme on service user and carer involvement in the Sussex Health and Care Partnership (SCHP). The overall aim of the project is to reduce health inequalities by creating a framework to help people across organisations and disciplines work and learn together. The framework will create links and partnerships between organisations – including statutory providers and public health, as well as the voluntary and third sectors – to offer integrated care and joined-up services.
For example, if the commissioners are undertaking work in the field of refugees and asylum seekers, they will be able to get the right people to work on the project by calling in expertise from any number of sources and join them together. Service delivery will then be streamlined to simplify the service user journey and provide better pathways to the right service.
It is important to avoid situations where similar projects aren't speaking to each other effectively. In such cases, the duplicated work is not an efficient use of resources. It also means outcomes may vary. The danger is that the end product suffers through a lack of connection and collaboration, as services don’t land with the right people. As a result, service design goes ahead without enough sharing – and health inequalities continue.
Louise explains how connectivity is key in big systems. Her aim is to connect and align organisations and people so they can learn together and aggregate their knowledge, while understanding the processes and approaches used by different teams.
The collaborative programme is focused on 15 large workstreams related to projects such as younger people, older adults, refugees and asylum seekers and community. Increasing the involvement of carers is central to the project because they are experts by experience too. However, many carers don’t recognise or accept themselves as such, or find caring overwhelming. For this reason, Louise is aiming to bring in carer-focused organisations such as Carers UK and Care for Carers. She is arranging meetings outside the usual 9-5 to make them more accessible alongside others working in a similar way in the Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust (SPFT) and Commissioning (CCG).
Louise says that Pathfinder West Sussex provides a good model for alliance and co-production between organisations, as it offers clear communication and streamlines service delivery which reduces duplication between its members.
Another positive example of co-production is the recent redesign of inpatient services in East Sussex – a collaboration between the East Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group (ESCCG) and SPFT. Louise quotes this as being a very successful project, due to co-production involving service users, carers, experts by experience, Healthwatch and staff representatives in addition to commissioners.
Whilst a lot of work has already been done in terms of setting up collaborative working within the Health and Care Partnership, resources for the project are such that Louise says there will be gaps in collaboration for many years to come. However, she is positive that changes can and are being made, resulting in greater equalities in service delivery.
