Agenda item

Impact of the welfare reforms on mental health (particularly inpatient admissions) -

Presentation by Wendy Wallace, Chief Executive at Camden & Islington NHS Foundation Trust

Wendy Wallace, Chief Executive, Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust gave a presentation to the Committee.

In the discussion the following points were made:

·         If an individual had a predisposition towards psychosis then cannabis use at a young age could trigger an episode but would not necessarily cause an exacerbation of the condition.

·         Three quarters of all suicides were not known to services beforehand.

·         A significant number of letters had been written regarding the changes to benefits taking up a huge amount of clinical time.

·         Alcohol use in itself did not necessarily correlate with inpatient admissions but there was a clear link with drug use.

·         There was evidence that the dislocation and trauma suffered by refugees could cause long term health issues. There were good links with the Freedom from Torture organisation at Iseldon Road and those experiencing consequential depression or psychosis would receive support.

·         Stress was a common mental health condition and although stress in the workplace was a factor, there were often other contributing causes.

·         There were a range of mental health services available and ICope had seen many thousands of cases a year.

·         There was a clear weekend related spike in mental health admissions.

·         Turnover of staff in the police force was an issue but training programmes were ongoing to inform staff about dealing with individuals with mental health issues.

·         The Trust were aware that there was a high proportion of older people in the group affected by benefit reforms. There were definite examples of distress caused to individuals going through the process.

·         Councillors would like to attend a training session on mental health covering issues such as surgeries and dealing with constituents on the doorstep. Although the intensive two day session would not be feasible for many councillors to attend they would be interested in a two hour session covering the issues specific to their role.

·         Islington had a high number of younger people with mental health issues in the borough. This number would be boosted by numbers gravitating to London as they left home and the number of universities in the borough.

·         The ICope service performed very well on referral times with patients being seen within six weeks compared with up to a year for talking therapies.

·         There was an 89% success rate in challenging appeals but patients would often attend up to four appointments before raising their concerns over benefits cuts. It would take up to 40 minutes to prepare one report taking up a significant amount of clinical time.

·         There was a wide range of students living in Islington and whilst rates of psychosis were low in that population it was very difficult to manage.

·         The CCG were looking at the significant amount of time spent on benefits appeals and were considering the possibility of central funding.

·         Work had been undertaken to put more mental health support into schools and materials on mental health were also made available at LIFT and the Platform Youth sites.

RESOLVED:

That the presentation be noted and that Wendy Wallace be thanked for her very helpful presentation.