Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Antoinette Jackson, Councillor Price, Dr Liz Robin, Mike Hay & Dr Cathy Bennett.

This is an opportunity for members of the public to ask a question or make a statement to the Partnership. Please refer to the Public Participation section at the end of this agenda.

There were no public questions.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 25 June 2015.

The minutes of the meeting held on 25 June 2015 were approved and signed as a correct record.

It is expected that this item will involve a 15 minute presentation and a 10 minute discussion.

Holly Gilbert, Public Health Manager (Mental Health & Community Safety) will give an overview of the recently published Public Mental Health Strategy and highlight some of the actions that the strategy proposes. As a part of responses to the consultation about the draft strategy the importance of debt management in improving mental health and the issue of hoarding were raised, which were incorporated into the final document.

Holly will also make reference to the PHOF indicator, hospital stays for self-harm, that shows a significantly worse than England average for Cambridge and give a view on how this indicator reflects the situation in Cambridge.

The full Public Mental Health Strategy 2015 – 2018 can be found at the link below:

http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/site/custom_scripts/cons_details.aspx?ref=361

Holly Gilbert, Public Health Manager - Mental Health & Community Safety, Cambridgeshire County Council gave a presentation on the Public Mental Health Strategy for Cambridgeshire. At any one time at least one person in six was experiencing a mental health condition, which had huge financial impact as there was a cost to the individual, society and the economy.

The strategy looked at mental health promotion and prevention activity, taking a multi-agency approach with the public and voluntary and private sectors. The work had highlighted the need for additional central government support.

Members were advised there were plans to make the most of opportunities across county services to promote mental health and prevent mental illness, for example through education. An anti-bully toolkit had been developed that would help support schools to improve their approach to mental health in young people.

The strategy would look at mental health promotion and prevention activity across three broad themes:

       i.        A life course approach to promoting mental health

     ii.        Developing a wider environment that supports mental health

    iii.        Physical and mental health

The themes would cover the following areas:

     i.        Promotion of Children & Young People

    ii.        Social Isolation & Loneliness

   iii.        Mental Health & Work

  iv.        Mental Health Promotion in the Community

   v.        Mental Health of People with Long Term Conditions

  vi.        Physical Health of people with Mental Illness

A further report outlining progress will be brought back to the Partnership at a future date.

Members discussed several projects that had been or were in the process of being undertaken. Reference was made to the HealthWatch Cambridgeshire’s Ely’s School Project and a County website developed around mental health that could be linked to other associated sites, which would go live next year.

Many factors that could contribute and / or impact on mental issues were also discussed, such as use of alcohol, individuals who were isolated, lack of exercise, whether the same services were available to those individuals who lived outside of a City. Another factor discussed was that of debt and the introduction of Universal Credit 

With the introduction of Universal Credit being paid directly to the individual an additional pressure could be put on young people or vulnerable individuals who had no experience of money management.

The Chair asked what strategies were in place to assist with the issue.

Cambridge Citizens Advice Bureau advised that there was a dedicated team to deal with debt management and all individuals would be offered budget help at the point of a claim. There is also a financial inclusion worker employed by the City Council for tenants. 

It was queried if a directory of services available could be produced but it was acknowledged information quickly changed and a printed format would quickly go out of date.  

Members were reminded of the Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), 2 day training and nationally recognised and certificated course which were available; details could be found at the following link http://www.mindincambs.org.uk/Services/Workplace.

The Chair thanked Holly for her presentation, who agreed to send out  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15/22/CLHP

It is expected that this item will involve a 15 minute presentation and a 10 minute discussion.

Jamie Butcher and Mark Pears from Riverside ECHG will outline the support their service provides for adults in Cambridge with mental health issues who need help to maintain their accommodation and give a view on how partnership working can be taken forward. This service is based out of the Victoria Project, which accommodates up to thirty homeless people many of whom have addiction or mental health issues or a combination of both. 

Further information about Riverside ECHG and the Victoria project can be found at the link below:

http://www.riverside.org.uk/corporate/our_services/care_and_support_services/        victoria_road.aspx

Jamie Butcher and Mark Pears from Riverside ECHG (a registered social housing provider) gave a presentation on the support their service offers for adults in Cambridge with mental health issues who required assistance to help maintain their accommodation.

Members were informed of ‘The Victoria’ project which accommodated up to thirty homeless people many of whom had either addiction, mental health issues or both.  The individuals were in the process of tackling their problems to help take ownership of their situation and to start make positive changes. A separate project ‘The Spring’s’ was also mentioned, which accommodated men and women who were committed to learning new skills and keen to get into employment.

Jamie and Mark explained that the key to the service was having a personalised focus with a positive coaching approach, when working with individuals, concentrating on their strengths and identifying the goals they wanted to achieve. Through this approach the individual was able to push for the changes that they want and have the tools to prevent falling back into negative habits. 

Individuals were referred to the service through outside agencies such as Jimmy’s, the Police or Housing Associations.

Members discussed information sharing and how fundamentally important it was, but also how difficult it is to find the complete history of one individual from one source of information. Therefore it was vital to build strong working relationships all the organisations concerned.

It is expected that this item will involve a 10 minute discussion.

Suzanne Goff, Cambridge City Council, will outline the city council’s plans to celebrate World Mental Health Day in lead-up to the day from the 5th to the 9th of October 2015 and highlight the involvement of partners and opportunities for others to get involved.

Further information about World Mental Health Day can be found at the link below:

http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/our-work/world-mental-health-day/world-mental-health-day-2015/

Suzanne Goff, Strategy Officer, Cambridge City Council presented a report outlining the details of the City Council’s preparations for World Mental Health Day on 10 October 2015, and highlighted a range of the key policies and strategies that the Council had been working towards which would help address environment risk factors for poor mental health.

The report referred to the Council’s aims to raise awareness across different organisations, groups and communities during the week and also to facilitate discussions and action about mental health issues. As part of the week the City Council would be offering additional training and support to the Council staff on mental health awareness and a variety of actives for staff and the public had been planned.

Suzanne concluded that she would welcome any interest from Members of the Partnership who wished to take part or would like to put on an event.   

Health and Wellbeing Board (HWB)

It is expected that this item will involve a 10 minute discussion.

The next meeting of Cambridgeshire’s HWB will be on 17 September. The agenda and papers can be found at the link below:

http://www2.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/CommitteeMinutes/Committees/Meeting.aspx?meetingID=1027

This is an opportunity for members to raise issues for the Chair to take to this meeting.

Alan Smith, Cambridge Citizen Advice Bureau provided an updated on the East Barnwell GP Surgery Outreach Advice Project.

The project is overseen by a steering group, which included representation from the City Council, County Council public health team and the East Barnwell Surgery and had been running for four months.

The main area that had been identified for advice in the project was welfare benefits, with a third of the clients being referred to the project for this issue. It had been recognised that there is an issue with individuals under claiming what they are  entitled to. Other issues were health related community care and housing as the largest areas followed by debt, education, consumer, relationships and employment. The trend had changed from the first report when the main advice had been for Housing.

Alan concluded that the partnership was going from strength to strength. Enquiries had been received to ask if this partnership working could also take place in other GP surgeries, which would be dependent on funding.

Yvonne O’Donnell, Environmental Health Manager, Cambridge City Council advised that the City Council had identified that there was a need for a Hoarder’s Policy. It would be a multi-agency approach working with such agencies as the fire service. All agencies were working towards the completion of a policy which would be brought back to a future meeting.

It is expected that this item will involve a 20 minute discussion.

·        Cambridge CAB Outreach project at East Barnwell Medical Practice

·        Hoarders Policy

Alan Smith, Cambridge Citizen Advice Bureau provided an updated on the East Barnwell GP Surgery Outreach Advice Project.

The project overseen by a steering group which included representation from the City Council, County Council public health team and the East Barnwell Surgery and had been running for four months.

The main area which had been identified for advice was welfare benefits with a third of the clients being referred to the project for this issue, it had been recognised that there is an issue with individuals under claiming what they have been entitled to. Other issues were health related committee care and housing as the largest areas followed by debt, education, consumer, relationship and employment. The trend had changed from the first report when the main advice had been for Housing.

Alan concluded that the partnership was going from strength to strength. Enquiries had been received to ask if this partnership working could also take place in other GP surgeries which would be dependent on funding.

Yvonne O’Donnell, Environmental Health Manager, Cambridge City Council advised that the City Council had identified that there was a need for a Hoarder’s Policy. It would be a multi-agency approach working with such agencies as the fire service. All agencies were working towards the completion of a policy which would be brought back to a future meeting.

12 November 2015,The Guildhall, Committee Room1, 12.00pm,

12 November 2015, Committee Room 1, The Guildhall, 12.00pm,