Creating a Black Country where people with mental health, learning disabilities and or autism have more say over their care and are supported to live well in their communities is key. Services to support people to live in the community, get support in a crisis, and be there when they need information and guidance is important. Our aim is to ensure our citizens have access to services that are of outstanding quality, and that support people to live their best lives as part of their local community.
We will do this through:
- more community connected services to give people more choice and control
- services in place to ensure that people who find themselves accessing urgent care services have fair and equitable treatment for their physical and mental health needs
- reduce out of area hospital placements
- focus on prevention, timely diagnosis and personalised care and support for those with dementia and their families and creation an all-age Black Country suicide prevention strategy with partners.
Outcomes to be achieved
- Accessible and equitable service provision, exceptional experience of care for all.
- Increase mental wellbeing and earlier intervention, increased support in the community.
- Support our Children and Young People to thrive and suicide prevention.
- Better understanding of population health and wellbeing, greater connectivity to local communities.
- Improved use of resources across the system, improved workforce resilience and wellbeing.
- Parity of esteem between physical and mental health, successful achievement of national ambitions for MH and LDA, benefit from economies of scale and specialism.
Work Programme
| Programme | To be delivered |
|---|---|
|
Children and Young Peoples Mental Health (MH) Services To achieve a shared and coherent vision across our system, to drive forward our transformation programme; including a full review across a number of service elements, alignment of pathways, and expansion of services where needed. |
2026/27 |
|
Community Mental Health Services (CMHS) Implement our new integrated model of CMHS to modernise services and workforce models, delivering holistic care aligned with Primary Care Networks, giving people greater choice and control over their care. |
2024/25 |
|
Urgent and Emergency Care Mental Health Services To ensure that people with MH needs who find themselves accessing urgent and emergency care services have a fair/equitable service, recognising both their physical and MH needs; through an assessment hub outside of Accident and Emergency (A&E) environment, a drug and alcohol strategy, High Intensity User support, bed strategy to reduce Out of Area Placements. |
2024/25 |
|
Dementia Improve the lives of people with dementia focusing on prevention, timely diagnosis, crisis prevention, personalised care and family/carer support. |
2025/26 |
|
Learning Disabilities and Autism (LDA) Reduce the reliance on inpatient care for people with learning disabilities and address unwarranted variation/gaps in autism care. |
2024/25 |
|
Suicide Prevention Collaborative working to develop an all-age Black Country Suicide Prevention Strategy and implement associated actions including education and awareness, urgent community response model and 24/7 Liaison Teams in A&E. |
2025/26 |
