Brief Introduction
The national Delivering Race Equality (DRE) Programme was established to improve access, outcomes and experiences for people with mental health needs. It was designed to tackle mental health inequalities for all people of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) origin, including people of Irish or Mediterranean origin and East European migrants. Although the programme formally came to an end in March 2010 (See http://www.nmhdu.org.uk/nmhdu/en/our-work/mhep/ ), the work by Community Development Workers and locality commissioners and provider organisations continued. Information found below records just some of their accomplishments, transformational work with diverse communities and several of their projects and products which were funded by the East Midlands Development Centre (2008-2011) http://www.eastmids.org.uk ; serving as a prompt for future reflections and continuous improvement.
Community Development Workers
Regional Development Projects
The East Midlands Development Centre funded five community projects spanning 5 localities between October 2009 – September 2010 which aimed to demonstrate high impact and spread potential across the region. This included developing toolkits, conducting scoping exercises, focus groups, creating DVD’s and training programmes and various advocacy engagement approaches. Central to this work was the local leadership by commissioners and providers, ensuring that service delivery can be changed by applying the practical tools and lessons learned from the projects. The engagement of service users and carers in projects was essential to the promotion of person-centred approaches. Current and forthcoming project reports are listed below.
Lincolnshire
In Lincolnshire partners from Lincolnshire Partnership Trust and LDCP worked with production designers to produce a BME DVD Training Tool. The 1.5hour training programme is accompanied by interactive DVD with the aim to explore the how the BME communities across East Midlands accesses Mental Health Services with the aim of exploring some of the barriers and challenges facing BME communities when accessing Mental Health services with the NHS. The training is designed to fit within existing induction and cultural competency programmes which accommodate the time staff can be released for training. For more information please contact Jeanne Baine at LCDP: Jeanne.Bain@lcdp.org.uk
LCDPare commissioned by NHS Lincolnshire to deliver the Delivering Race Equality in Mental Health programme. Last year we worked with the Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust’s Diversity Officer and the Garnett Foundation to develop a DVD and Training packagewhich highlight the importance of using interpreting services whilst working with people whose first language is not English. The project was funded by the Regional Development Centre who are keen to see this package rolled out across the Region.
The DVD challenges practice and assumptions made by frontline staff who have contact with service users from Ethnic Minority communities. It is intended to be used as part of Diversity or Induction training with staff who have direct contact with the general public and service users.
This is your opportunity to use the DVD and Training Pack, which can be downloaded from our website:
www.lcdp.org.uk Easy Access for ALL...
Leicestershire
A Data Use Toolkit designed by Leicestershire Partnership Trust has been developed for use by clinicians and managers addressing the information and knowledge application required to make use of data sets that inform awareness raising, operational systems and staff performance. For more information and a copy of the final report please contact:
Jon Bashford at jon.bashford@leicspart.nhs.uk or
Christina Mariott at Christina.Marriott@leicspart.nhs.uk
At a more grassroots level, the Akwaaba Ayeh Mental Health Project in Leicester will be promoting community engagement through the “A FI WE SIN TING”. Using the coordination and delivery of a community Fashion Show, 90 – 100 African Heritage people will participate in discussions and presentations linked to aspects of health and well-being. This process can increase their understanding of health and well-being and potentially support the community to advocate for others addressing mental health issues and their engagement of mainstream services. For more information please contact Pamela Campbell at: pamela@akwaabaayeh.com
Nottinghamshire
The involvement of service users and carers across the spectrum of service design, delivery, consultation and evaluation will be aided by a framework for engagement produced by Nottinghamshire Healthcare Trust. The toolkit, research report and supporting check list for practitioners can be found at: http://www.nottinghamshirehealthcare.nhs.uk/aboutus/equality-and-diversity/
For more information please contact Catherine Conchar at Catherine.Conchar@nottshc.nhs.uk
Northamptonshire
Exploratory work has taken place in Northamptonshire that can support the development of innovative interventions and approaches to improve well-being outcomes for BME and underserved communities in the county. The ‘Communities Speak’ development project filtered the lessons from the national DRE Community Engagement Projects through the lens of well-being to extrapolate Northamptonshire communities needs and opinions. The work was delivered by partners from NHS Northamptonshire and Northamptonshire Healthcare Foundation Trust. For more information on commissioners response to the reports recommendations and implications for service development, please contact Mental Health Commissioner at NHS Northamptonshire Kim Dodd at: Kim.Dodd@northants.nhs.uk
Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP)
The Wellness Recovery Action Plan is a self management and recovery system developed by a group of people with a lived experience of mental health difficulties. It is used by people to help keep them well, who may not necessarily use services. There are five key recovery concepts for WRAP: hope, personal responsibility, education, self-advocacy and support. In response to existing efforts to share WRAP across communities in Northamptonshire the EMDC funded the Northamptonshire Healthcare Foundation Trust to conduct a study in four localities in the region with the Black Wellness Initiative and the Corridor of Hope on the impact of WRAP training on community perceptions of mental health issues and accessing related services. A report summarising the challenges, benefits and lessons of this work will be released in April 2011.
For more information please contact Martha Vahl martha@cict.demon.co.uk or Ann Crowder Ann.Crowder@nht.northants.nhs.uk
National Links: You probably already have marmot listed but the NHS Evidence site is an important link to include if not otherwise provided.
Fair Society Healthy Lives - http://www.marmotreview.org/
NHS Evidence – Health Management (Race Equality) Substantial list of links to information on government programmes, reports, consultations, publications and tools. http://www.library.nhs.uk/healthmanagement/ViewResource.aspx?resID=276957
