Open Mental Health alliance wins prestigious Health Service Journal award

We're thrilled that our trust, as part of the Open Mental Health alliance has won a prestigious Health Service Journal award at last night's ceremony in London. The award for ‘Mental Health Innovation of the Year’ recognises the partnership work with our voluntary, community, faith, and social enterprise partners, to ensure that people struggling with their mental health in Somerset can access the right support at the right time.

Since the Somerset Open Mental Health alliance was introduced five years ago, we've been able to meet the expected increase in patients with a whole new range of support, whether that be NHS, social care, voluntary, or third sector support. This has largely helped to stabilise waiting times for NHS mental health services too.

In fact, due to a combination of mental health rapid response vehicles, first response service, crisis safe space and Open Mental Health as a whole, we've seen a:

• 35% drop in acute hospital bed days for mental health
• 4% drop in readmissions rates to mental health beds – fewer than half the national average of 8.5%
• 18% reduction in patient admissions
• 15% reduction in mental health A&E attendances.

The HSJ judges said: "Open Mental Health represents a multi-agency, open-access initiative that harnesses the collective strengths of Somerset’s health and care system to create positive change across entire communities. The programme tackles the social, therapeutic and broader determinants of mental ill health through a comprehensive range of support and therapeutic activities.

"This collaborative partnership model brings together an alliance of 18 organisations spanning Somerset’s voluntary and community sector, Somerset FT, Experts by Experience, Somerset Integrated Care Board and Somerset Council. By dismantling traditional barriers between services, the initiative enables prevention, early intervention and highly personalised support for people across Somerset who are experiencing, or at risk of developing, mental ill health.

We were also a finalist for our post-menopausal bleeding (PMB) self-referral service in the ‘Acute Sector Innovation of the Year’ category.

The PMB service allows people to self-refer themselves for a vital womb cancer diagnostic test, and has been hailed as a game-changer for those experiencing bleeding after they’ve reached menopause.

Before the service was introduced, patients had to wait around 63 days to be seen by a hospital specialist, and then a possible wait of up to 48 days for a cancer diagnosis. But thanks to the new service, the wait to see a specialist has reduced to just six days, and patients are getting a cancer diagnosis within 11 days of the referral.

Since the service began, there has also been a significant increase in the number of patients in Somerset being given a cancer diagnosis, or an all-clear result, within 28 days of their referral.

Finally, the South West Provider Collaborative - which is a partnership of five organisations including our trust, one community interest company and two independent sector organisations – was highly commended in the ‘Provider Collaboration of the Year’ category for its adult forensic care for patient recovery and integration.

A huge well done to colleagues from our services for these incredible efforts!