Service user perspective on the benefits of an integrated
approach to mental health service delivery
Fiona Hill
Chair of London Health Programmes Service User Panel
Opportunities
 Address issues raised by people using services – and
carers – in relation to feeling they can get ‘lost in the
system’
 Address experiences of individuals using services that
they are expected to fit into the different cultures of
organisations
 Address experiences of individuals that services work in
silos rather than collaboratively
 Address experiences of feeling excluded from discussions
and decisions made about them
Opportunities identified by the Service
User Panel
 Improve communication
 Facilitate understanding
 Make use of expertise and work collaboratively in a
respectful way – facilitating individuals’ involvement as
central rather than as an optional extra
 Work more flexibly, negotiating different cultures of
organisations
 Define different roles and responsibilities facilitating
accountability and equality
Opportunities identified by the Service User
Panel
 Enable people to feel valued and have a voice and be
treated as unique individuals and not as labels or
conditions or ‘just service users’
 Enable use of a shared language facilitating accessibility
 Challenge stigma
 Enable flexibility – avoiding squeezing individuals into
existing systems and their needs and wants being
overlooked as a result
Learning about collaboration from people’s
involvement in the Service User Panel
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People felt respected and that they had a voice
They had a sense of acceptance
Sense of inclusiveness
Felt involved
Indirectly therapeutic
Felt their opinions were valued
Part of something bigger than themselves – having a
sense of purpose
 Opportunity to gain information and knowledge
 Encouragement and empathy
Opportunities presented by implementing
the Mental Health Models of Care
 Maximise limited resources, including primary and
secondary health and social care services as well as
community and self-help resources locally, in London and
nationally
 Address issues raised by range of professionals as well as
those using services and carers involved in the project to
create good practice and collaborative ways of working
 Reduce individuals’ reliance on services by enabling selfmanagement and enabling people to address the wider
social determinants of mental health issues
Opportunities presented by implementing
the Mental Health Models of Care
 Use a personalisation approach with individuals using services
- and carers – at the centre of collaborative working
 Implement the current mental health strategy No Health
Without Mental Health
 Facilitate broad access by challenging stigma and
discrimination and inequalities by using a wellbeing and
recovery approach – evidenced by BUG Wellbeing training,
enabling people to use the Wellbeing Toolkit and wellbeing
workshops run for different communities by BUG
 Utilise the implementation tools produced via the Service User
Panel
Opportunities presented by utilising the
implementation tools
 Guidelines for GPs – building on good practice identified
and addressing experiences of individuals
 Wellbeing Toolkit to facilitate self-management and use a
broad range of resources – examples of the kinds of
available resources are included in the toolkit
 Audit tool to measure approach of staff and services
including in relation to personalisation, wellbeing and
recovery approach
 Tool to enable individuals to measure approach of staff
and services to facilitate discussion with staff
Fiona Hill
Director
Brent Mental Health User Group (BUG)
[email protected]