_ 4th March 2010 Dear colleague, Improving mental health services – your views wanted Latest update I wrote to you at the end of December to let you know about our plans for improving mental health services. In my letter I said that we planned to put these proposals to local people for formal consultation in early February. In order for us to carry out more detailed work to develop our plans to talk to local people and gather their views, the consultation will now start on 8th March 2010 and run until 1st June 2010. The consultation will involve a series of public meetings and stakeholder events, and people will also be able to tell us what they think in writing, by email and through a feedback form available via our website and a dedicated consultation document. Please see below for further details. To provide public assurance we have appointed an independent analyst to review all the consultation feedback and report back to us on the main themes and issues that are raised. What we are asking local people about People who use mental health services say that they want to receive more care and support at home, and in the community if possible, rather than in hospital beds. Clinicians (doctors, nurses and other health professionals) also believe that providing more and better mental health services outside of hospital helps people to recover quicker and stay healthier. We have been working with local clinicians, as well as service users and others with an interest in mental health, to look at the ways we can improve services for local people. Community mental health services have benefited from significant investment in recent years and are continuing to develop. They offer high quality support, close to people’s homes, ranging from open access services for people with mild to moderate mental health issues, to specialist 24-hour community services for people with more severe conditions who would in the past have been likely to need hospital admission. We want people’s views on proposals to improve the range and performance of community mental health services, to introduce standards to make sure these improvements are measured and then to start reducing the number of mental health inpatient beds because fewer people will need to admitted to hospital. Once we have achieved that goal we can then look at having fewer inpatient beds as the need for them will be much less than now. Again, we would like your feedback on the various options for the future for how many inpatient beds there would be in West Sussex and where they would be located. It is important to stress that no changes to bed numbers will be made until suitable community services are in place to help and support people close to where they live. Having your say A full public consultation is vital to ensure that we are able to take account of the different points of view of all the local people we serve. Please note that the consultation runs from 8th March 2010 to 1st June 2010. The final decision will be made in public by the members of NHS West Sussex Board once they have had time to consider the consultation feedback and responses. Please find enclosed a copy of the consultation summary leaflet. If you would like a copy of the consultation document (which includes a feedback form), would like more information or have any comments or queries, please contact: Telephone: 0800 028 6203 (freephone) or email: mhconsultation@westsussex.nhs.uk Alternatively, you can visit our website (www.westsussex.nhs.uk) to read the consultation document, find out more and have your say via an online feedback form. We are also holding the following public meetings: • 15th March, 2-4pm, Chatsworth Hotel, The Steyne, Worthing • 17th March, 7-9pm, Alexandra Theatre, Regis Centre, Bognor Regis • 22nd March, 7-9pm, The Venue, Spur Road, Chichester • 24th March, 2-4pm, Clair Hall, Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath • 29th March, 7-9pm, Arora International Hotel, Southgate Avenue, Crawley • 12th May, 2-4pm, The Holbrook Club, North Heath Lane, Horsham I look forward to hearing your views in the coming weeks. Yours sincerely John Wilderspin Chief Executive