Staffordshire Good Mental Health Strategy
Good mental health is one of the priorities of Staffordshire’s Health and Well-being Strategy.
This Strategy will help to achieve our ambition to build strong and resilient communities and individuals who are in control of their own physical and mental well-being.
In this Strategy when we refer to ‘mental well-being’ we mean a feeling of control, confidence, and resilience; when we refer to ‘mental health’ we mean the absence of mental health problems that impair a person’s ability to engage in many day-to-day activities.
The Strategy will aim to help everyone improve and maintain their mental well-being, help those who have short periods with problems to regain their mental health and well-being, and help people of all ages with severe long term mental health problems to live productive and fulfilling lives.
The Strategy takes into account recent national policy changes, the impact of the Covid pandemic on people’s mental health, and related local strategies and plans to improve mental health and well-being and mental health services.
The Strategy has been co-produced by the County Council and NHS with other partners, the public, mental health professionals, and the people who use these services and their carers.
We would like to thank everyone involved in the production of the strategy, and we look forward to working with you to achieve our outcomes
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Good Mental Health Strategy PDF (1.77 MB)
Mental health problems affect many people
- One in four people experience mental health problems in their lifetime; at any one time one person in six is experiencing a mental health problem.
- Around 20% of working age adults have mental health problems
- Around one in four children aged 11-12 have an emotional well-being issue; for 5-16-year olds, one in 10 have a diagnosed mental health condition
- Mental health problems represent the largest single cause of disability in the UK; the cost to the economy is estimated at £119 billion a year.
- half of adults with long-term mental health problems experienced their first symptoms before the age of 14; 75% by their mid-20s.
- Around 10-15% of mothers have mild to moderate depression during pregnancy; 3% have severe depression
The Strategy will aim to achieve six outcomes
- Answer:
- This will include
› Raising awareness of measures that everyone can take to improve and maintain their mental well-being, including promotion of the Five Ways to Wellbeing (and other approaches with strong evidence).
› More social interaction and initiatives that tackle loneliness and isolation.
› More physical activity, linking to Better Health Staffordshire whole system approach.
› Creating neighbourhoods, workplaces and schools that are more conducive to good mental health.
› A stronger focus on encouraging and supporting communities to support each other and themselves.
› Ensuring people understand where to go for support with mental health problems and can self-refer to services to get help at the earliest opportunity.
› Increasing access to mental health support in schools.
› Improving access to psychological therapies.
› Strengthening mental health literacy across the population to increase resilience and skills in self-management of mental health problems.
- Answer:
- This will include
› Improving access for children and young people to emotional health and well-being support to help prevent more serious mental health problems.
› Improving access for children and young people to mental health services.
› Ensuring mental health liaison services are available in all general hospitals.
› Ensuring care is personalised to people’s individual needs, and mental health professionals work in partnership with people to provide choices about their care and treatment, and to reach shared decisions.
› Ensuring access for women and their partners to specialist perinatal mental health services.
› Ensuring people receive timely access to the assessments, interventions, support, and treatments that they need.
- Answer:
- This will include
› A system-wide approach to reduce and prevent suicide, self-harm, and reduced unsafe social media use, reducing suicides to below the national rate by 2025.
› Expanding services for people of all ages experiencing a mental health crisis and making it easier and quicker to receive crisis care, around the clock, 365 days a year, including through NHS 111.
› When a person requires care and treatment that can only be provided in a mental health inpatient setting and cannot be provided in the community, ensuring they receive prompt access to the best hospital provision available for their needs.
- Answer:
- This will include
› Increasing the numbers of adults who are living in their own homes.
› Increasing the numbers of adults who receive Individual Placement Support into paid employment.
› A stronger focus from key public sector organisations (“anchor organisations”) to create employment, training, and volunteering opportunities.
› Ensuring care is joined up across the health and care system - services work in a cohesive way with partner organisations, so that people are supported to stay well and can further their recovery.
› Offering a range of community support, including step down care and supported living options, which meet different levels of needs with providers of care consistently promoting people’s independence and quality of life.
› People with severe mental health problems benefit from new models of integrated primary and community care.
- Answer:
- This will include
› The early identification of mental health problems in children and young people.
› Improved maternal and paternal mental health.
› Young people with mental health problems will have a well-planned and joined up transition, so they can thrive and become independent in adulthood.
› Young people have settled care arrangements that meet their mental health needs and allow them to continue their education.
To achieve these outcomes, we will:
- Help people to help themselves by offering good information about how to maintain their physical and mental well-being and where to go for support.
- Minimise medicalisation by strengthening people’s personal resilience and helping them develop lifelong skills for good mental health.
- Promote independence by offering support and services to people as close to home as possible and the least restrictive care options
- Build and use community capacity to support people with mental health problems.
- Co-produce support and services, working with individuals and communities.
- Encourage and enable our workforce to learn and grow, develop their skills and maintain their own mental well-being.
- Embrace technologies to improve people’s mental well-being, access to services and quality of care.