HWL Escalation Paper - £1.7m Mental Health Growth Fund

As you are aware the Department of Health released £1.7m to Lincolnshire CCGs for spending on mental health services.  We have been notified that the Lincolnshire CCGs are still holding this fund and we are keen to know when and where you intend to release the funds for improvements to mental health services in Lincolnshire.

There are around 60 Lincolnshire HDU mental health patients being placed out of county at an annual cost of £30m to Lincolnshire.  We are aware that a further female HDU facility is required in county and plans to provide such a facility have been submitted by LPFT, this facility would help to reduce some of the £30m financial burden but more importantly enable patients to be treated much closer to home and allow their families to see them more often, helping to aid their recovery.

Whilst we recognise there has been some improvements to mental health services, there are still gaps and inequalities across the county.  One example is Older Adult crisis intervention.  There are currently no services in place to support this and at this time if for example, an older person goes into crisis at 6pm on a Friday evening the only option is for the ambulance and police to intervene but with no capacity to support in a specialist way.  On behalf of patients and their families/carers Healthwatch Lincolnshire does not consider this to be meeting the needs of people with mental ill health.