Visit to Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation NHS Trust

This week our chief executive Daniel Elkeles visited Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation NHS Trust, where three months ago the 24/7 neighbourhood mental health centre opened in East Birmingham. The centre is one of six national pilots of an innovative model for delivering community mental health services and serves a deprived part of the city across three council electoral wards.

Daniel said: "It's definitely going to be a core component of neighbourhood health services, and what I saw during my visit was totally extraordinary. 

"Gone are the days of patients attending scheduled outpatient appointments every few months—with up to 50% DNA rates. Instead, this new model offers 24/7 access.

"Patients (guests) can come when they need, as often as they want, and stay as long as they need. Meals are provided because food is seen as central to building bonds. Creative therapy sessions are run by community organisations, and the staff ethos is simple but powerful: you must help fix people’s lives as well as their minds. 

"It's early days, but so far staff tell plenty of stories of how their interventions have saved a trip to Emergency Department, and the use of inpatient beds from the population the team serve has reduced from eight to three. If these reductions are maintained it will more than pay for the additional costs of the team." 

The team have had to both unlearn and learn so much in how they work to make this model a success, including managing the: 

🔵 communal area hospitality space where patients eat and relax;
🔵 unpredictable nature of attendances without appointment times;
🔵 large amount of unmet need clinicians find out when they see patients more regularly;
🔵 loss of the old hierarchy as the team all use the same job title;
🔵 case load effectively which has significantly increased in size.

"They are rightly so proud of what they are achieving and are planning on how to roll this model of care out across the city. 

"Thank you so much to Roisin and team for such a remarkable visit."