Adult mental healthcare

Developing wellbeing and mental health services for adults in Brighton and Hove.

One in four working age adults experience mental health problems at any one time. We want to buy services that meet these needs and help keep people healthy. We have asked your opinions on what we should focus on, through engagement activities with our third sector partners and an online survey.

Our plans

These are our priorities for the primary care mental health services. We know are shared with people with mental health needs and mental health workers through all of our engagement work with them to date. We want to:

• Have people seen faster and referred when needed to the right service
• Improve the range of services provided in primary care
• Improve people’s experiences of their therapies
• Improve people’s opportunities to manage their own mental health and wellbeing
• Reduce the number of assessments that people currently experience
• Provide a more patient-focused service with flexibility and choice
• Expand the skills of staff so that they can manage more people in the community
• Provide practical support to increase people’s choice, control and independence
• Be clearer about the role and responsibilities within primary and secondary care services
• Provide practical support to increase people’s choice, control and inpendence so that they can access services when they need it.

During 2011 we propose to develop two new mental health services in primary care:

• A primary care mental health service that support GPs to manage their patients. It would have a range of services and would help GPs to refer and signpost other services
• A primary care talking therapy service for people with a common mental health problem including anxiety and depression.

NHS Brighton and Hove is looking for organisations to deliver both or either of the above services with a single lead organisation. There will need to be a range of providers within the contract to provide an integrated care pathway. The partnership arrangements will need to be innovative and focus on good relationships, accountability and person-centred care.

Have your say

We consulted with the public early in January by survey to ask them what they would like to see from a primary care mental health service. This helped us create what we hope is the right model for mental health services in Brighton and Hove.

The survey closed on 23 January 2011.