The NHSGGC Mental Health Strategy 2023-28 proposes a system of stepped/matched care, with people entering at the right level of intensity of treatment and allowing for movement through different levels of care. It aims to:
- Shift the balance of care into the community and better meet the needs of the patients, as more people access care through expanded community-based services.
- Deliver prevention and early intervention, including mental wellbeing and suicide prevention training for all staff, expanding computerised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (cCBT) services and supporting Wellbeing in primary care.
- Develop the focus on Recovery across community teams and inpatient settings.
- Improve the effectiveness of community services; including developing group based Psychological Therapies, offering Patient Initiated Follow Up (PIFU) which gives people control over return appointments, such as when symptoms or circumstances change, reducing appointments of low clinical value.
- Develop Unscheduled Care; Mental Health Assessment Units diverting people with Mental Health problems who do not require physical / medical treatment from Emergency Departments, community mental health acute care services offering intense support as an alternative to hospital admission and commissioned services to provide help to people in distress where a non-clinical response is more appropriate.
The ongoing and proposed range of community developments represents new ways of working across primary, secondary and community services. They will improve care across the whole spectrum of mental health problems, but importantly and mainly for those with the most severe and complex mental disorder.
The NHSGGC strategy contributes to the delivery of the Scottish Government’s 2023 Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy.