Agenda item

To provide an overview of Haringey’s Great Mental Health Programme.

Dr Chantelle Fatania, Consultant in Public Health, presented slides on this item with an update on the Great Mental Health Programme in Haringey. She described the programme as an ambitious, innovative and collaborative wellbeing initiative that had been launched in October 2021. The overall programme consisted of seven prevention and promotion initiatives delivered by different organisations including through face-to-face and digital support. Haringey was one of 40 local authorities which had been successful in securing funding from the Better Mental Health Fund and this was being used to support the programme.

As part of the programme, an initiative called Community Protect was delivering wellbeing activities in the central and eastern areas of the borough. The priority groups for engagement were:

• BAME people
• Residents whose first language is not English
• Homeless people and rough sleepers
• Low-income households
• People with autism and learning disabilities
• Older people
• Young people who are NEET

In terms of the other initiatives:

• MIND in Haringey were delivering a bereavement support programme with activities including grief workshops, a bereavement support group, a telephone support line and access to qualified counsellors.
• A parenting programme was being delivered by ABC Parents working with a groups such as single parents and parents who speak limited English.
• A case worker had been commissioned to deliver interventions to identify and support victims of domestic violence, write safety plans and offer information and advocacy on issues such as housing, welfare, benefits, legal rights and child protection.
• Community Navigators would work with residents in Northumberland Park to improve their mental health and wellbeing, directing residents to support and building a befriending network.
• A targeted communications campaign was designed to increase reach and equity of local mental services and resources.
• The digital offer was being improved in partnership with Good Thinking, which was a digital well-being resource run across London. There were specific resources for young people, people who had been bereaved, employers/employees and faith communities.

As part of the programme, a Great Mental Health Day event was held on 28^th January 2022 which aimed to:

• Raise awareness of local and regional mental health services, community organisations and activities.
• Challenge stigma often associated with mental health and asking for help.
• Encourage open conversations about mental health and wellbeing.
• Signpost people to the most appropriate form of advice for them.

The Great Mental Health Day initiative originated in Haringey but was also replicated in other London Boroughs. In Haringey, 18 events were held and at least 337 residents interacted with the physical and virtual activities. There were also over 60 events listed on the Thrive LDN website covering most boroughs in London which included exercise classes, meditation, wellbeing walks, coffee mornings and workshops to discuss mental health and wellbeing.

Co-production was an important part of the Great Mental Health in Haringey. For example, Good Thinking were co-producing culturally competent materials specific to Haringey. Mind in Haringey hosted a quarterly steering group for delivery partners and interested stakeholders to gain knowledge of how individual community groups experience bereavement and access services.

The evaluation of outcomes would be conducted by collecting qualitative and quantitative data with the programme due to run until October 2022. The Community Protect element of the programme was being evaluated by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). Haringey Council had also committed to signing up to the Prevention Concordat, a national multiagency collaboration based on taking a prevention-focused approach to mental health.

Dr Chantelle Fatania and others then responded to questions from the Panel:

• Asked by Cllr Connor about the co-production approach for the establishment of the project, Dr Fatania said that the initial turnaround for the funding application was less than two weeks so co-production wasn’t possible at that stage. However, co-production was part of the overall approach. For example, the work with Good Thinking, was a London-wide initiative through a digital platform that co-produces resources with Londoners and with faith-based forums. Cllr das Neves, Cabinet Member for Health, Social Care and Well-being, added that a lot of services are peer-informed and that sometimes it was not possible or appropriate for services users to directly inform service delivery. However, where it was possible then service users would inform the Council on what works and what doesn’t and how services could learn and adapt from that input.
• Cllr Connor asked whether the Joint Partnership Board would be involved in this process. Lynette Charles, CEO of Mind in Haringey, said that they had been closely working with grassroots organisations as part of the Community Protect project, including throughout the lockdown period. This had involved not just co-producing but also co-delivering services. When the Great Mental Health Programme was established, this had been very welcome because there was already some partnership work going on and this enabled the support to be developed a lot further.
• Cllr Mark Blake asked about the funding source for programme, noting that it was time-limited. Dr Will Maimaris, Director for Public Health, confirmed that this was from the Better Mental Health Fund which came from Public Health England.
• Cllr Blake emphasised his concerns about the extent of mental health issues in the criminal justice system. Cllr Blake also commented that accessibility of mental health services could be very problematic, particularly for BAME communities. Will Maimaris commented that the scope of the Great Mental Health Programme funding was limited to support a broad community-based prevention programme but acknowledged the importance of the wider challenges that he raised relating to mental health services.
• Cllr Connor noted that there was currently an ongoing Mental Health Services review for the North Central London (NCL) area and asked how this related to the evaluation work been carried out for the Great Mental Health Programme. Will Maimaris, said that there was no explicit link to the Mental Health Services review currently but they could consider feeding into this. (ACTION)
• Cllr Connor raised mental health support for young people in schools commenting that funding for this was not currently reaching the whole of the borough. Charlotte Pomery, Assistant Director for Commissioning, responded that the Children & Young People’s Mental Health & Well-being Transformation Plan had identified the need to expand the offer into schools across the Borough. This was also part of the emerging core offer for the Mental Health Services review so it had been identified as a key priority that needed to be resourced as part of prevention and early intervention. The aim was to have a single approach across the whole of the NCL area.

Cllr Connor thanked everyone who had contributed to the discussion, noting the success of the Great Mental Health Day and commenting that it was welcome to see the wide range of initiatives in this area.

Noting the positive comments made by Charlotte Pomery on mental health support for young people in schools, the Panel recommended that this support be implemented borough-wide as soon as possible. (ACTION)

RESOLVED – That the Panel recommends that mental health support for young people in schools should be implemented across the whole Borough as soon as possible.