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SeCtion one Four key approaches to change
Case Study C:
Action research in a mental health recovery hub
Background
Community mental health teams had been in operation in the locality for over 5 years. In these teams social workers were co-located with health professions with a shared referral and care coordination system. Previously social care staff remained employed by the local authority and were managed by social work team managers. These staff members have now been transferred into the Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust along with their team managers and one service manager. Community mental health teams have a single team manager that can come from a health or social work background. The social work staff team had mixed views about being transferred over to the Trust – some felt it would lead to a dilution of their professional independence whilst others believe that the Trust would have a greater understanding of working with people with mental health problems than the local authority and therefore provide opportunity for better services. One of these community teams was to form the core of a recovery hub for people with long term mental health problems. This would be based within an ex-local authority library building and include a third sector organisation that provides accommodation and employment advice services, and an advocacy group. The Trust wanted to increase its research profile and was encouraging staff to consider undertaking research directly and/or working with local universities.
Case Study Manager C
Manager C would be responsible for managing the recovery hub.
The Organisational Brief to Manager C
• To improve outcomes for people with long term mental illness.
• To increase the productivity of the service (i.e. to support more people with the same resources)
• For the hub to be a national good practice example in relation to recovery services.
The overall approach to change
From initial informal interviews Manager C discovered that most people were cautiously positive about the new arrangements and the potential to provide a more seamless and recovery orientated service. However, whilst aspirational, these ideas were also vague and there were conflicting views about could be achieved. For instance, the health staff thought that one benefit would be that social workers would be able to work with people who had previously seemed to be out with their eligibility criteria, the advice services thought that their role within care pathways would be formalised and this would secure their funding, and the social workers that community nurses would take on more care management (including people receiving direct
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