Last Updated on April 21, 2017
At Together for Mental Wellbeing, we identified the need for a specialist service to work alongside emergency services staff at the earliest opportunity, to tackle the problems at the root of a person’s distress. The result was our Pathways services, for which we won the Collaboration (Integration) Award at the 2015 3rd Sector Care Awards. Our Pathways Workers work alongside the emergency services to improve responses to people in mental distress. They look at both practical and psychological aspects of an individual’s circumstances, working with the person to find a holistic response to their situation. They work strategically with the emergency services and other key organisations to develop ways in which they can work together more effectively, and as a result, help prevent individuals from reaching crisis point.
The job of emergency services is to treat immediate risk quickly. Thereafter a range of specialist services and follow-up support should exist to ensure a person’s health condition is managed. However, when it comes to mental distress, this process is not so clear cut, meaning the actions taken from the moment of someone’s call can differ greatly. Even if the immediate risk is dealt with effectively, individuals often don’t get that same level of follow up treatment, which can unfortunately mean they repeatedly call on emergency services for help.
Initial findings from our Pathways projects show that our intervention has reduced the instances of police contact by more than 70% for those individuals that we have supported.
Our approach to supporting individuals is to identify the three hardest things that are currently making their lives difficult. Our staff team then works with them to build their own resources and resilience in order to overcome these issues.
We focus on people’s strengths, providing support that helps them to build positive relationships and networks, meaning that they will be better equipped to cope with life’s challenges, manage their mental wellbeing and ultimately reduce their use of emergency services.
Distress often occurs alongside a range of other disadvantaging factors, including substance misuse, trauma, abuse or homelessness. We provide ongoing support for those who don’t meet the thresholds of community mental health teams. We bring together the health, social care and criminal justice services to improve efficiency and close gaps in provision of support.
Winning a 3rd Sector Care Award was a great recognition of the positive relationships and networks we have built with the police and other emergency services. It’s also great recognition for the wonderful work our staff are doing on the ground to enable individuals to leave our service feeling positive and confident in managing their mental wellbeing.
The 3rd Sector Care Awards’ judges noted that we are working in an integrated way with the emergency services, which is unusual for a third sector organisation. We’re proud to be leading the way in this area and this award has motivated us to strive to extend our work into further areas around the country.
We would like to thank the 3rd Sector Care Awards for presenting us with this Award – we see it as a celebration of the difference a specialist service can make to those experiencing mental distress.
Linda Bryant, Director of Criminal Justice Services