Report of the Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust

This paper presents the GMMH organisational response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the steps take to sustain services throughout the initial lockdown period and then develop a sustainable model of provision. Steps taken to forward plan the changing demand and impact on services as a consequence of the pandemic are also presented with a surge predicted to coincide with the autumn and winter months.

The Committee considered a report of the Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (GMMH) that described the organisational response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the steps take to sustain services throughout the initial lockdown period and then develop a sustainable model of provision. Steps taken to forward plan the changing demand and impact on services as a consequence of the pandemic were also presented with a surge predicted to coincide with the autumn and winter months.

The main points and themes within the report included: -

·         Providing an introduction and an overview of national guidance;

·         Describing the GMMH COVID-19 Governance Arrangements;

·         Information on the Recovery Planning Group;

·         Information on the work of the Physical Healthcare and Infection Prevention and Control workstream;

·         A summary of the work of the Service Users and Carers workstream;

·         A summary of the work of the Workforce workstream;

·         Information on Demand and Capacity Planning;

·         Information on Community Activity;

·         Information on Crisis Response;

·         The response to Student Mental Health;

·         Winter Planning;

·         Infection Prevention and Control;

·         Vaccination; and

·         Lateral Flow Testing.

Some of the key points that arose from the Committee’s discussions were: -

·         What work had been undertaken with local universities to support the local student population;

·         How was this specific work with students communicated;

·         Welcoming the extended 24/7 crisis helpline and did this link in with other services such as Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS);

·         Noting the IAPT (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies) service reported as providing increasingly efficient access and as a result the service had reduced secondary waits throughout Manchester by over a 1000 clients, what percentage of clients did this represent;

·         What work was being done to improve the transition from Children’s Services to Adult Services;

·         Noting the anticipated long-term impact of COVID-19 on mental health what comparisons could be made with other periods of economic downturn;

·         Has there been an increase of people with mental health issues presenting at Accident and Emergency Departments; and

·         Noting the increase in digital access to services, could people still access face to face services and support.

The Executive Director of Operations, GMMH informed the Members that the service for students had been established pre COVID-19 and had been established using the GM Transformation fund. She described that teams were established at each University and the number of referrals to this service had increased and staff had been deployed to support this service.  The Deputy Director of Strategy MHCC further added that COVID-19 had highlighted the need to improve access to this service and Commissioners across Greater Manchester were looking at this using the lessons learned.

The Associate Director of Operations, GMMH stated that the 24/7 crisis helpline was open to all age groups and not restricted to mental health. He advised that the helpline could sign post to other services and offer advice on other issues such as substance misuse, NHS 111 and CAMHS.

The Associate Director of Operations, GMMH stated that he would circulate the details of the percentage of clients the reduction in secondary waits for IAPT services represented. He further confirmed that clients could still access face to face services, subject to COVID safe requirements and this was in addition to the provision of virtual services.

In response to the specific question regarding CAMHS and the transition to Adult Services the Executive Director of Operations, GMMH advised that work was ongoing to develop standards and protocols and commented that during COVID-19 teams across services had responded positively and collaboratively to ensure continuation of care and support.

In response to the numbers of patients with mental health issues presentation at Emergency Departments the Associate Director of Operations, GMMH informed the Committee that in the initial stages of the pandemic the incidents of this dramatically reduced, however the number was beginning to increase again. He added that the Trust was working closely with Acute Services to address this.

The Executive Director of Operations, GMMH informed the Committee that the long term impact of COVID-19 continued to be modelled and analysed, noting that this was comparable to periods of economic recessions and the impact on mental health would be felt for at least two years to come. She stated that Greater Manchester was engaging with NHS England to ensure appropriate funding was secured to continue to deliver mental health services.

The Executive Member for Adults, Health and Wellbeing called upon the government to adequately fund mental health and wellbeing services in Manchester. She further paid tribute to all staff delivering mental health services.

Decision

The Committee note the report and welcome the steps taken by GMMH to support the strategic objectives of the City Council to address local need throughout the pandemic