Winter 2020

MENTAL HEALTH Chief Officer Healthwatch West Berkshire ANDREW SHARP explains some of the issues around mental health and why your experience matters Out&About wellbeing

W ith a second lockdown in progress and the UK in the grip of a second wave of Covid-19 we are all facing further restrictions. Over the coming weeks, difficulties in navigating our everyday life will return and concerns over mental health issues will increase. Our opportunities to see family and friends are being curbed and with this our most basic need for human contact, from a simple hug to the desire to mix with like-minded people at a football match or gig, will be limited. These simple things can have an enormous effect on our mental health. Healthwatch West Berkshire (HWWB) is your statutory health and social care champion – and for the last three years has put mental health as its top priority. We launched our ground-breaking Thinking Together events to enable the public, carers and those with mental health issues to discuss local services. In the four events, while working with a range of organisations, including Open for Hope, Thatcham, Eight Bells and Recovery in Mind, along with the Berkshire West Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), West Berkshire Council teams and other statutory bodies, we have heard from our community about a range of topics, most notably how services respond in a crisis. Our last Thinking Together event focussed solely on crisis services, highlighting gaps and leading to a full review of crisis services in West Berkshire by the CCG, with new services coming on stream to help people in the greatest need. HWWB also highlighted how physical

A Thinking Together event in Newbury

Our opportunities to see family and friends are being curbed and with this our most basic need for human contact, from a simple hug to the desire to mix with like-minded people at a football match or gig, will be limited

health is often neglected, how annual checks for people with serious mental issues have been implemented nationally and how the removal of bus passes had worsened mental health recovery. Additionally, we started to investigate Child Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and the lengthy waiting times for help. The key for Healthwatch, as the public’s champion, is that we hear from the public, carers, friends and families. It’s vital that we are told what works well and what doesn’t, as well as what changes might make a difference. This enables us to take the public’s voice to those who make decisions

about services, to help improve how services are run, discover any gaps – and find out what works well and needs rolling out further. So, if you have any feedback, positive or negative, about mental health services in West Berkshire, or would like to attend a Thinking Together virtual event or volunteer for HWWB, contact us via the details below.

Healthwatch West Berkshire, Broadway House, 4-8 The Broadway, Newbury, RG14 1BA, Mon-Fri 9.30-5pm E: contact@healthwatchwestberkshire.org.uk | T: 01635 886210 | www.healthwatchwestberks.org.uk

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O&A WINTER 2020