Integrating Mental Health Teams in the United Kingdom
Combining Local Creativity with National Mandates
Focus of the Appreciative Inquiry:
To create and implement integrated mental health services in the
southern region of the UK.
Client organization:
Hampshire County Council Social Services Department which is responsible
for the full range of social services in the region.
Client Objective:
The specific purpose of the project in each locality:
- To envision an integrated mental health service in each locality,
jointly delivered by health and social service agencies
- To create this service by involving the psychiatrists, psychologists,
nurses, social workers, art, occupational and behavioral therapists,
administrators, clerks and secretaries who were engaged in delivering
mental health services in the community
- To achieve this by maintaining stakeholder trust, integrity,
cooperation and optimism
The organizational objective was to encourage and support a 'can
do' culture where local creativity could flourish within the national
mandates. A wider objective was to develop regional joint agency
health service and social service standards to meet national targets.
What was done?
A series of one-day events for all the stakeholders was held in
each locality to discover the best of the two cultures in the health
service and social services teams, to envision a new integrated
mental health service for the users and carers in their specific
locality, and to identify the key areas that will make that future
happen. While each locality developed its own set of images of an
integrated service and systems to deliver that future, consistency
across these localities was maintained by line managers and managers
who had held national and regional perspectives. They also maintained
a watching brief on the follow-on activities which were crafted
for each locality.
At the regional level, there was a set of activities for health
and social services executives to establish joint agency standards.
Outcomes:
In the initial events, professionals, managers and administrative
staff in the Health service and Social service teams:
- Developed an appreciation for and understanding of each other's
commitment to creating a quality integrated mental health service
- Described the skills, capabilities and qualities they shared
as well as those that were complementary
- Became aware of their colleagues' support for the new team
approach, for retaining their professional identities and for
having a full role in creating the new integrated service
- Developed plans that built on current or earlier initiatives
rather than replaced them
In the first locality, the integrated service has been launched
with many of the key systems in place that were identified in the
initial events. The other localities are gradually implementing
their integrated service. At the joint agency level, budgets, plans
and targets are being set with a much greater mutual transparency.
"Teams are feeling positive about the change and are looking
forward to it… They know much more about each other's work
and jobs than similar teams in the area. Their attitude towards
change is significantly different from that of other teams in the
area.”
For further information:
Contact: Anne Radford
+44 (0)20 633 9630
AnneLondon@aol.com
www.aradford.co.uk
www.aipractitioner.com
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