According to John Azah of Kinston Race Equality Council: “The uniqueness of the voluntary sector cannot be stressed enough. If you look at the example of Covid, voluntary organisations came into their own. They stayed open seven-days-a-week. We are trusted in communities and we have access to a whole swath of people.”
When it comes to improving mental health care, the NHS can learn a lot from the voluntary and community sector. Closer working brings mental health services right to the people the NHS needs to reach as well as taking pressure off A&E and other parts of the frontline. But the right connections haven’t always existed in the past.
A new alliance between the community and voluntary sector and the NHS could change that. In its first year, the SWL VCSE Alliance is focussing on mental health and in spring 2024 the NHS came together with voluntary and community organisations from the six south west London boroughs – Croydon, Kingston, Merton, Richmond, Sutton and Wandsworth for a partnership event.
The event was a chance to share information about south west London’s ambitious mental health strategy. It was also the start of a conversation about how the voluntary sector can be at the heart of supporting communities facing challenges.
Amy Scammell from South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust leads the positive mental wellbeing workstream of the South West London mental health strategy. She said: “This was a fantastic session and I’m hopeful this could be the start of further collaboration between the NHS and voluntary sector around mental health.
There are real opportunities to strengthen partnerships to deliver improvements in mental health and the ambitions of our South West London Mental Health Strategy”
“The discussions brought out the benefits of funding the sector’s involvement in strategic development rather than service provision alone. We also need to ensure we don’t just ask for feedback but actually value lived experience shared by the sector to make positive improvements.
“There are real opportunities to strengthen partnerships to deliver improvements in mental health and the ambitions of our South West London Mental Health Strategy for everyone across south west London.”
Further events and joint projects will follow, including the first South West London Mental Health Conference taking place at Springfield University Hospital on 20 May.
What the sector told us
During the event, voluntary sector leaders from each borough gave their perspective about mental health, informed by their day-to-day work. We started by asking them about the difficulties people are currently facing.
What are the challenges people are facing in south west London?
According to Marcella Meloni of Avanti Mental Well-being CIC in Merton: “The big, big problem is the cost of living. That has a real impact on people’s mental health and wellbeing.”
For John Azah of Kinston Race Equality Council: “A number of people have lived in isolation since Covid and I think that post-Covid people have struggled to come together, to be in large groups, to engage with each other and to share some of the things that they used to share.”
Others saw the struggle to find decent housing a major driver of mental ill-health. Says Emma Turner of Mind in Croydon: “We’re seeing a lot of people come to our services in crisis due to their housing conditions and that might be poor housing, inadequate housing or unstable housing.”
What can the voluntary sector bring to the table?
We asked what the voluntary sector can bring to better mental health care in south west London. For all the groups, the sector’s closeness to communities, it’s knowledge, insight and ability to adapt make it ready to respond to the difficulties people face.
According to Odette Battarel of Kingston Association for the Blind: “The voluntary sector is very well-placed to know the population; to know what’s happening in our neighbourhood at grassroots level; to know what people want, what people need.”
For Ravi Arora of Multicultural Richmond: “There are many mainstream services that the NHS provides, but communities don’t really know about them. It could because of language or just that people don’t know that they exist. It’s important to break down those barriers, so we are in the middle to make those connections.”
Lisa Lancefield from Sutton Mental Health Foundation added: “What the voluntary sector provides is on-the-ground insight into how things are really working. It’s important the NHS listens to voices of people who have experience and who work in the sector because we know how difficult it is for people to navigate services.”
What new things are happening?
Voluntary sector services are working in inventive ways to respond to the needs of local people, often in partnership and with funding from the NHS and social care.
Lisa Lancefield gave an example. “One of the things we’re really proud of is the Sutton Crisis Café, available 365 evenings a year from 6.30 till 11pm, offering non-clinical, non-judgmental support to help people navigate a mental health crisis and keep themselves out of A&E, which is just not a good place for them.”
Similarly, in Croydon, new venues are offering support. Says Emma Turner of Mind in Croydon: “We provide drop-in services in partnership with Croydon BME forum in accessible locations such as the Whitgift shopping centre. Anybody can drop in and talk about the issues they’re facing for advice, support, representation and direct access to clinical psychologists.”
According to Odette Battarel of Kingston Association for the Blind: “We have worked to enable our members, who are blind and partially sighted, to enjoy walking outdoors. It sounds like perhaps everyone can enjoy walking by the river but it’s hard when you can’t see well. Walking helps people’s wellbeing, their mental health and gives them confidence to go out.”
Rosie Anderson from Family Action in Wandsworth added: “We work in food banks delivering mental health support. We have a really close liaison with GPs. With their consent, we develop links between healthcare and our very vulnerable guests. In that way, they can access, for example, social prescribing services that are often delivered within GP practices by the voluntary sector.”
What could improve things for the sector?
We asked what could help improve mental health care. “I think it’s really important that you take a creative approach,” says Marcella Meloni, Avanti Mental Well-being. “We support people with mental health issues to express themselves via the arts. We offer a platform for social interaction, opportunities for gaining and developing social skills and re-engaging with the community.
Some people we’ve worked with over the years have moved from being in residential care into living independently or have found paid employment and developed more independence. You need long-term projects where people can really develop at their own pace to recover.”
Rosie Anderson from Family Action in Wandsworth wanted to see more integrated working between health, social care and other services when it comes to equal access. “The biggest issues right now are health inequalities, particularly experienced by the black and Asian communities. I think it’s something that the public sector needs to address in close partnership. It’s about recognising how marginalised some communities are and joining up together to fight the inequality and discrimination.”
The Ethnicity and Mental Health Improvement (EMHIP) programme is an example of community-led wellbeing support addressing such inequalities in Wandsworth and Croydon.