Question

Covid-19 is unquestionably having widespread and significant impacts on mental health everywhere, through increased exposure to stressors, loss of coping mechanisms for many, and reduced access to supports.

Awful ‘vicious circles’ and downward spirals are all too evident.  For instance, issues such as unemployment, unexpected financial hardship, housing concerns and for those in work changing work practices to cope with, are contributing to poor mental health.

In turn, practical issues such as these make it harder to improve mental health and can prevent those who need support from seeking help. This include people of all ages.

What age specific strategies and actions does WBC have in place to identify and support the pandemic related mental health needs of rising numbers of our residents?   

Question

Covid-19 is unquestionably having widespread and significant impacts on mental health everywhere, through increased exposure to stressors, loss of coping mechanisms for many, and reduced access to supports.

Awful ‘vicious circles’ and downward spirals are all too evident.  For instance, issues such as unemployment, unexpected financial hardship, housing concerns and for those in work changing work practices to cope with, are contributing to poor mental health.

In turn, practical issues such as these make it harder to improve mental health and can prevent those who need support from seeking help. This include people of all ages.

What age specific strategies and actions does WBC have in place to identify and support the pandemic related mental health needs of rising numbers of our residents?   

Answer

We are fully aware basically of the impact that Covid-19 is having on our residents’ wellbeing. 15% of Wokingham residents have a formal diagnosis of depression.  Over 40% of GP consultations relate in some way to mental health issues and there has been a doubling of people experiencing issues related to their wellbeing, from 1 in 5 to 1 in 10 and sadly this situation is likely to deteriorate further over the winter months.

The Borough’s Community Response has reached out to those isolated and vulnerable. Adult Social Care has made over 6,000 initial welfare checks and some 16,000 follow up calls via the WBC and the Link Visiting Scheme and there have been 4,000 calls to the “One Front Door”, supported by Wokingham Borough Council and Citizens Advice. The “One Front Door” takes calls of any nature, many of which impact on mental health.  These initiatives are being repeated or stay in place over the next few months.

To bolster this further there are two further initiatives.  We are doing a project with Earley Plus PCN and Citizens Advice to encourage residents to call the “One Front Door” if their wellbeing is suffering. Citizens Advice will try to resolve the underlying issues causing depression and anxiety, such as financial stress and relationship breakdowns.  They can signpost to other specialist services. 

In addition Wokingham Borough Council are sourcing a specialist voluntary sector partner to provide support to those suffering from mild to moderate mental health issues of any age.  The specification includes Wellbeing Support Workers who will talk through issues over a number of sessions as well as signposting to groups and activities to support them.  The organisation will take referrals from GPs, statutory or voluntary organisations.  They will also be tasked to support the voluntary sector with mental health training, providing advice and support and it is hoped, and expected, that this service will be fully mobilised very early next year.

The statutory mental health service in Wokingham continue to provide services since the start of the pandemic.  Services are being delivered via the telephone and on-line using the NHS One Consultation facility.  There have been face to face contacts with PPE being used as and where necessary.  There is an IPS worker supporting people into employment within the service and residents can also access the employment services provided by Optalis. 

This year Wokingham Borough Council has set up a Recovery College which provides courses and workshops for people with mental health needs and their carers.  The courses are focussed on understanding mental health issues, managing mental health in a positive way and keeping well. Courses also provide life skill training and access to support to gain employment. These courses are open to the general public who can register themselves with the College.

The Council has run a project to coordinate and collate resources for use by the general public to manage their mental health and wellbeing. These resources are available for children and adults.  Obviously the phone calls which I mentioned earlier are being targeted in particular to those shielding and our vulnerable who have been isolated during Covid.  They are available on the Wokingham Borough Council website. The website also provides details on how to access Talking Therapies and formal community mental health services for those people with higher levels of need.

Supplementary Question

It sounds like we are doing a lot but we have children going outside the Borough to go to school and also residents who work outside the Borough.  Are you talking to the councils around us as well to see what services they are providing and are these at the same level as us or different so benchmarking it?

Supplementary Answer

I now the DASS, Matt Pope, has regular meetings with colleagues and also has a mentor who basically is meant to encourage and develop his skills as many of the senior Officers will.  I know discussions take place regularly between them about what we are doing and what can be learnt from what the mentor is doing and what other people are doing. 

So we are open minded.  We are trying to be proactive and offer something for everybody but we are not pretending for one second we have got all the answers and very much of this best practice elsewhere we want to know about and we can see it and we want to be doing it because we are absolutely committed to try and support all our residents during this difficult time.