Emotional wellbeing and mental health
Emotional wellbeing and mental health has been identified as a priority within Richmond upon Thames as there is anecdotal evidence that the current provision is not meeting the needs of young people, parents and schools. There is also now new and emerging evidence on the impact of parenting on emotional wellbeing and resilience, as well as a stronger case for investing in prevention and earlier intervention. If done, this should, for individuals, communities and populations, lead to:
- reduced mental illness and suicide;
- improved physical health and life expectancy;
- better educational achievement;
- reduced health risk behaviour such as smoking, alcohol and drug use;
- improved employment rates and productivity;
- reduced antisocial behaviour and criminality; and
- higher levels of social interaction and participation.
The case for investment in children and young people’s services is even stronger as the following evidence clearly indicates that half of all lifetime cases of diagnosable mental illnesses begin by age 14 and three-quarters of lifetime mental illnesses arises by mid-twenties. Yet 60 to 70% of children and adolescents who experience clinically significant mental health problems have not been offered evidence-based interventions at the earliest opportunity. Prevention and intervention in emotional wellbeing and mental health targeted at children and young people will result in greater benefits and savings than interventions at any other time in the life span.
The causes and impact of poor mental health are extremely complex with some children and families needing ongoing support while others could have their needs met sufficiently by an earlier intervention.
The commitment for children and young people in Richmond upon Thames is to provide an evidence-based, locally appropriate whole system of services for emotional wellbeing and mental health from pre birth up to their 18th birthday.
Context
The Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health Strategy
(pdf, 737KB) (EWMH) was developed in 2008 and is now due to be updated and refreshed. There are some services that ended in March 2012 and a decision needs to be made as to whether these should be re-commissioned and if a competitive tendering round is needed. There are also some more specialist mental health services that have been contracted by the council to support specific vulnerable groups.
Therefore, there are three strands of work will be undertaken forward:
- To decide on what needs to be contracted for in 2012/13
- To update the EWMH Strategy to get a longer term view of what needs to be commissioned from 2013/14 onwards through a more in-depth needs assessment.
- To review the specialist mental health - Tier 3 and the input into the vulnerable children’s services, for example Youth Offending Team, Children in Care and Substance Misuse.
In March 2012, a stakeholder consultation event was held to review the strategy. The outcomes from this event(pdf, 51KB) will contribute to updating the new EWMH strategy.
EWMH Programme board
A programme board has now been established and papers from these are available to download
7 December 2011
8 February 2012
- Agenda(pdf, 43KB)
- Minutes(pdf, 59KB)
- Terms of reference(pdf, 74KB)
- Strategy consultation plan(pdf, 37KB)
Supporting documents
- Review of existing emotional and mental health services in Richmond upon Thames(pdf, 438KB)
- Developing commissioning intentions - April 2011(pdf, 178KB)
- Developing commissioning intentions - May 2011(pdf, 269KB)
- Commissioning Action Team notes: 11 July 2011(pdf, 288KB)
- National Support Team feedback to Richmond upon Thames(pdf, 206KB)
Training available
The Workforce Development team provide training for EWMH. Contact the team for further information at workforcedev@richmond.gov.uk.