Better Care

In recent years the Better Care programme has transformed our Adult Community Mental Health Services to help people living with serious mental illnesses across South West London live well and stay well in their communities, closer to their friends and families. 

Making sure people get the help they need early on is vital to preventing someone's mental ill health deteriorating. Key to this is ensuring that the help we provide outside hospitals goes further by supporting their wellbeing and social needs. That’s why we have been working to transform our community mental health services improve the way we care for our community patients in each of the five boroughs we serve.

In each area we have collaborated with local partners to offer a wider range of therapies and treatments, physical health care, peer and carer support and advice and support with housing, employment, finances and social welfare. 

Collaborating for better 

This three-year 'Community Transformation programme' has seen a large-scale collaboration with patients, carers, GP mental health leads, voluntary and community sector partners, and colleagues from across our adult community mental health services in Sutton, Merton, Kingston, Richmond and Wandsworth.

Sutton led the way, launching in early 2022, with Kingston and Richmond following in 2023 and Wandsworth and Merton in 2024.

As a result, our community mental health teams have become new 'Integrated Recovery Hubs' to help people get better access to a wide range of support including:

• Tailored mental health care and treatment, which is more recovery-focused and with an emphasis on evidence-based therapy
• Working with 22 different organisations across the five boroughs, such as Citizen’s Advice and Mind providing peer support, and advice about housing, employment, finances and social welfare
• Ensuring our GP partners can get specialist advice and guidance on care and treatment for service users.

More than 11,000 people have accessed these hubs in the last 12 months, with more than 1,600 people accessing peer support and welfare advice services.

Dr Victoria Hill, Clinical Director for Community Services said: “Our aim is to ensure our patients are able to live well in the community, receiving the right care at the right time in the right place.

“At the heart of this work has been co-production with those with lived experience of mental health, ensuring that everyone involved works together to create more joined-up care.

“I am so proud of what we have achieved and the difference it is making to our South West London community.”

Joined-up care

By working in a more joined-up way we can better meets the needs of our community. With a significant expansion of our workforce, we also hope to see more people accessing our services more quickly and reduced waiting times for evidence-based treatments in the long-term.

This will mean easier access to a wider range of support in places that are more convenient like GP surgeries, more people staying well for longer and fewer people experiencing a mental health crisis. All together this will deliver better care and a better experience for patients and carers across our communities. 

Watch our explainer videos above to find out more about what this means for you.

Better Care is transforming Acute and Urgent Care to ensure no one stays in hospital longer than they need to whilst also enhancing crisis support available in the community.

Many patients are staying for a longer in restrictive inpatient care, with more people waiting for social care support. We know this is not what our patients want or need. This can lead to delays in recovery and prevents other people who need urgent inpatient care from receiving it. 

Our acute and urgent care transformation aims to ensure no-one stays in hospital longer than they need to by improving community crisis care, helping people leave hospital without needing to be readmitted, and transforming inpatient care to offer even better interventions that promote recovery. In the long-term this will mean fewer people need inpatient care, with more people in crisis receiving care in the most appropriate place for them.

Better Care is transforming key areas of our Specialist Services to build better pathways back into the community for patients with complex mental health needs, supporting them to recover and live independently closer to their friends and families.

Our specialist care includes a wide range of services for people with severe mental health issues and additional needs due to old age, neurodevelopmental disorders, deafness, blindness and other conditions requiring more specialist treatments.

Transformations focus in particular on improving equity of access to community services for older adults, building stronger links with existing adult services, and improving and creating new care pathways in the community for people with intellectual disabilities, ADHD and Autism.

We will also build on successful transformations across Rehabilitation and Eating Disorder Services Transformation to support people with severe mental health issues to optimise their journey to recovery and live independent lives. This will empower more people with sever and complex mental health issues.