The improvement directors from the 15 AHSNs across England are looking forward to hosting the first intra-AHSN learning event on Mental Health in London on Wednesday 2 March.
This will be a unique opportunity to hear about the innovative work that AHSNs are supporting in the field of mental health.
The day will allow AHSNs to showcase their work, share best practice and learning points, form natural collaborations and have time to discuss key national next steps with Dr Geraldine Strathdee NHS England’s National Clinical Director for Mental Health and patient representatives from Positive Practice in Mental Health.
Anna Burhouse, Director of Quality for the West of England AHSN, worked with the northwest Coast and West Midland AHSNs to design the format of the event.
The West of England AHSN will be presenting their work on a new national quality improvement toolkit for mental health, which celebrates best practice, mobilises knowledge and shares tools and resources for change. This work is a collaboration with many mental health trusts, NHS England, Monitor, ImROC and NHS Confederation. It will be launched in the spring and fellow AHSNs will have sneak preview of it at the March learning event.
Anna said: “As a passionate mental health clinician I believe we have to innovate and improve mental healthcare to make it more person-centred and increasingly focused on how to support important life outcomes for people, as well as the reduction of their symptoms.
“We need new ways of designing and delivering systems that are preventative, effective and recovery orientated. Increasingly, we need to ensure the expertise of people with lived experience of mental illness comes together with academics, health and social care professionals and business to generate fresh ideas and thinking.
“Choosing mental health to be the subject of the first intra-AHSN learning event demonstrates the AHSN’s commitment to this process and their positive role as catalysts for change.”
To see more of the quality improvement work Anna helps to support as a mental health clinician alongside her role as Director of Quality for the West of England AHSN, watch the Health Foundation’s Power of People film, The Recovery College.
Posted on February 26, 2016
