Community Mental Health Team attends Crisis Care Report launch at the Houses of Parliament

Slough Council’s Community Mental Health Team attended an event at the Houses of Parliament on Tuesday, 4 February, put on by the Positive Practice in Mental Health Collaborative (PPiMHC), to launch its National All Age Crisis Care Pathway report. The report highlights the best examples of crisis care for all age groups across the England.

Representatives included Geoff Dennis, Head of Mental Health Slough, Natasha Berthollier, Psychologist, Susanna Yeoman, Divisional Director of Mental Health East Berkshire, Rex Haigh, Medical Psychotherapist, Caroline Freeman, Co-Production Lead for Enabling Town Slough, and Peer Mentors Tony and Leanne.

Enabling Town Slough (“ETS”) is the name for Mental Health Services in Slough and includes Slough Borough Council, Slough Public Health, Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and other partners.

The report highlights the importance of equal and inclusive access, person-centred care, and getting the right help at the right time in the right way. It focuses on the importance of voluntary bodies and partner organisations in the community, working together alongside traditional mental health services.

ETS featured in the report as an exemplar of inclusive, person-centred and asset based positive practice in mental health, particularly around suicide prevention services which support people with severe mental health difficulties. This was after ETS won two awards at the National Positive Practice in Mental Health Awards in October 2019; for Addressing Inequalities in Mental Health and the Crisis Care Pathway project.

The event was extremely well supported by representatives from across the country and included Slough MP Tan Desi and Cllr Natasa Pantelic, Slough Borough Council cabinet member for health and wellbeing, NHS England, NHS trusts, clinical commissioning groups, police forces, voluntary sectors organisations, front-line charities and service user groups.

Cllr Natasa Pantelic, cabinet member for health and wellbeing, Slough Borough Council, said: “I was really proud to join Slough Council staff in Parliament for the launch of the National All Age Crisis Care Pathways report, featuring our suicide prevention services which support people with severe mental health difficulties. This builds on the national award we recently received and shows how we have some inspiring practice here in Slough, which we are always willing to share.”

One of the ETS representatives said: “It was an amazing event, in an amazing place. That the report be launched from the centre of Government is, in itself, an indication of how important these issues are. The value of input from previous mental health service-users in the design, creation and delivery of these services is finally being recognised in more areas across England. The practices used by ETS, which have enabled me to get my life back, have achieved national recognition.”