Since 2017 the Grenfell Health and Wellbeing Service has been dedicated to supporting the wellbeing of the community affected by Grenfell and we have received much feedback during public meetings, appointments with NHS staff and from feedback surveys that residents have participated in.
Some of that feedback on what we could do to improve has been:
- More co-production with local organisations
- More joined up services
- More culturally appropriate services
- Making the service more visible in the community
- Having a service that reflects the diversity of the community
- Understanding that there is no 'one size fits' all when it comes to wellbeing
There are also a number of issues which will have an impact on the recovery of the local community, such as environmental issues related to air and soil toxicity, the recently published Inquiry Report and the future of Grenfell Tower itself. All of these need to inform the continuing mental health response.
In January 2019 NHS England launched its Long-Term Plan, which sets out the national perspective of how the NHS wants to improve care for patients over the next 10 years. Many of its priorities are aligned with the feedback received from the Grenfell-affected local communities, including promoting more integrated services and supporting people to take more control of their own health. (see NHS’ Community Mental Health Framework for Adults and Older Adults).
Prioritising issues around accessibility for all, we will need a front facing, community collaborative entity that aims to immerse itself in the community, amplify the voices and health issues arising, identify self-defined solutions and inform the delivery of care going forward.
To address this feedback and enable us to increase our collaborative work we have created a way of working that focuses on empowering the community to shape and own its health and wellbeing services, through active participation. The beginning of this journey was to appoint a Community Collaboration Lead and hire Community Connectors to ‘walk the journey of care with the client’, prevent community disconnect, social exclusion, drop out or disengagement and with to optimise the CNWL experience, thus improving the reach and quality of the service. They have also been the first point of call for resident groups/associations and local organisations who want to work collaboratively with the NHS to provide holistic, community centred care for the people affected by the fire.
Working with the Community Connectors, we have a team of clinicians made up of Occupational Therapists, Social Workers, Arts Psychotherapists and Psychological Therapists dedicated to creating wellbeing interventions with the community and we have up to 20 collaboration projects going at any one time. To read more about our collaboration projects, click the ‘Past Collaborations’ button below.
To discuss an idea for collaboration or just find out more about what we can offer please fill out this form.
