Public consultation begins today on a new strategy that will guide local work to improve mental health for all adults living and working in South Gloucestershire over the next five years.
The strategy has been developed from the Adult Mental Health Needs Assessment, which provides local partners with a comprehensive picture of the current and projected future mental health needs in South Gloucestershire. Gaps identified in the needs assessment are being targeted for improvement within the strategy.
The draft Adult Mental Health Strategy has been developed by South Gloucestershire Mental Health Partnership. It covers work from public awareness and early interventions, through to acute care.
The Strategy sets out our approach to improving adult mental health built around three key areas:
- Mental Health Promotion: This section outlines our work to develop a culture and environment that promotes positive mental health. This includes issues such as education, housing, employment, transport, cultural and sporting opportunities. This section also details our approach to helping individuals and communities develop their own approach for improving mental health.
- Mental Illness prevention: This section focuses on how we address the mental health inequalities faced by some groups and our approach to reducing the gap between their quality of life and the rest of the population. We outline how we work with communities and the voluntary sector to meet different needs flexibly.
- Treatment and Rehabilitation: This section details how health services work with people experiencing mental ill health, including primary care and talking therapies, but also secondary and acute mental health services.
Councillor Matthew Riddle, Chair of South Gloucestershire Health & Wellbeing Board and Leader of the council said: “Mental Health is both a local and national priority and whilst much good work has been undertaken over the past couple of years we know there is still much to do in South Gloucestershire. This strategy sets out our approach to help people develop and maintain their own mental health, but also acknowledges that some people will need specialist services. Where this is the case, services need to be high quality and to have the capacity to react to individuals’ needs quickly before illness becomes acute and long term.
“I am very proud that our work in South Gloucestershire has been recognised nationally. In June, the council was awarded the Sarah Stewart Brown Award for Public Mental Health, in recognition of our work to roll out a programme of courses across South Gloucestershire that help people understand and look after their own mental health. Over the next five years we will build on this work and address the other gaps in provision we have identified.”
More information about the Strategy and details of how to give your feedback is available online at https://consultations.southglos.gov.uk/consult.ti/MHStrat2017. Copies of the consultation materials are also available at South Gloucestershire One Stop Shops and libraries.
The consultation runs from Monday 17 July until Friday 6 October and the public and other stakeholders are encouraged to comment on the approach as outlined in the strategy.
Feedback provided as part of this consultation will be used to shape the final strategy, which will be published in the autumn.
