The East of England’s regional mental health team lead and support transformation in mental health services across the region’s six integrated care systems.

Their extensive programme covers all aspects of mental health care from prevention and population health management, the intersect with primary, community, acute, local authority and voluntary, community and social enterprise services, through to community, inpatient and crisis services.

The team also works on a number of cross cutting themes including digital, data quality, inequalities and workforce.

The level of demand and complexity of presentation for those requiring mental health services has risen as a result of the pandemic, due to increased prevalence and healthcare hesitancy.

This is resulting in pressures within community services, mental health urgent and emergency care and inpatient pathways across all ages.

The team supports the six ICSs in the East of England to transform mental health by providing:

• link to regional and national leadership and policy development
• clinical leadership
• programme and project management
• bespoke support (e.g. modelling, pathway design, strategic planning)
• quality improvement sprints
• action learning sets and communities of practice
• regional working forums/spaces
• hybrid/embedded working clinical advisory offers (and how to utilise clinical advisory resource)
• commissioning of bespoke project work to support local priorities
• supporting methods of evaluation & measurable change
• agile working (including rapid deployment of resources)

The regional head of mental health is Helen Hardy.

You can contact the mental health team at eastmentalhealth.pmo@nhs.net