South West London Mental Health Strategy builds momentum at inaugural NHS conference
The inaugural South West London Mental Health Conference took place on Monday 20 May.
Following the launch of our local NHS's first South West London Mental Health Strategy last year, the conference asked how we work in partnership to increase prevention and early support, reduce health inequalities and ensure timely access for those who need it.
Led by South West London Integrated Care System and South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust, the event brought together stakeholders, NHS staff, patients and carers to hear first-hand from mental health leaders and clinicians, voluntary sector partners, service users and carers about local mental health services and how we can all play a part in their future.
It was an inspiring day with insightful discussions, engaging workshops and no shortage of energy and enthusiasm in taking forward our system's new strategy.
Collaboration in action
The day included a series of three plenary sessions with speakers sharing their insights and expertise and patients sharing their lived experience of mental ill health and recovery. Nine collaborative workshops took place over the day on a range of different topics linked to the new strategy.
The first set focused on stakeholders and partners. Richmond and Croydon Mind led a session on early intervention and prevention. Active Wellbeing, Enable covered the importance of physical healthcare for people with serious mental illness. And a workshop with Croydon Ethnicity and Mental Health Improvement Project engaged delegates to think about how we work together to tackle health inequalities.
After lunch we focused on collaboration between healthcare professionals with sessions led by colleagues from across the Trust on community support for serious mental illness and emergency care pathways. We were also joined by charity Off the Record for a session on support for children, young people and families.
The day finished with a series of workshops aimed at our wider community. This included a session on co-production with the Trust’s Recovery College, a thought-provoking workshop on tackling mental health stigma with Mental Health First Aid England and an engaging session on community organising with the South London Listens programme team.
Special thanks to our speakers, partners and workshop hosts for supporting us to create an engaging and collaborative programme of talks and activities. We look forward to building on this momentum and working collaboratively to bring our system’s new strategy to life in the coming years.
You can find conference materials and resources below. For any questions please email Communications@swlstg.nhs.uk
Click below to download the following:
— South West London Mental Health Strategy
— Better Communities programme brochure
— Plenary slides (session 1, session 2, session 3)
— Block 1 workshop slides:
o Early support and prevention
o Physcial healthcare for people with Serious Mental Illness
o Tackling Health Inequalities
— Block 2 workshop slides:
o Community support for people with serious mental illness (part 1 ,part 2)
o Urgent and emergency mental healthcare pathways
o Support for children, young people and families (part 1, part 2)
— Block 3 workshop slides (coming soon):
o Co-production in recovery
o Tackling stigma through Mental Health First Aid
o South London Listens and community involvement
