Ewan King, Chair, Care Provider Alliance, and Chief Executive, Shared Lives Plus

At the same time, we can see in recent news stories and in the statistics, that mental ill health is a growing problem, with not enough people receiving adequate support.

As we start to implement the NHS 10-year Plan, develop integrated neighbourhood health and indeed, shape what we hope will be far reaching recommendations from the Louise Casey Commission on adult social care when it publishes their first report next year, we must redouble our efforts to provide better health, care and support for people with mental health conditions.

For real and lasting change to happen, social care needs to be central to the thinking about health and care reform. When we think about mental health I don’t think we naturally think about adult social care, but they are inherently interlinked. Adult Social Care when done well, is person-centred and holistic, considering the person’s whole life, including their mental health, when building support around the person. In learning disabilities, mental health and autism services, the focus is centred not just on the person’s support needs, but also on giving them people the tools to build their mental wellbeing.  

There is of course a wealth of good practice examples which demonstrate how people’s lives can be transformed through great social care and support. In the world I work in, Shared Lives, there are a growing number of people supported by our approved Shared Lives carers who have mental health challenges. The Islington Shared Lives scheme in North London for instance, has entered a partnership with the local NHS Mental Health Trust to develop a mental health prevention offer which entails people at risk from hospitalisation being matched with Shared Livers carers who welcome them into their homes and support them to find their feet again. 

Elsewhere in social care, there are ample examples of life changing social care. In London, the not-for-profit Certitude’s Solidarity in a Crisis Service (SiaC) has enabled many people to support each other with overcoming the most difficult periods in their lives. SiaC is co-designed and co-delivered by people with lived experience of mental health or addiction support needs, and/or carers. These Peer Supporters help prevent people from reaching crisis point and promote recovery and feelings of belonging and hope to those in distress.

However, sometimes there is too little information about what is working in mental health support, particularly for those with learning disabilities and autism. We want to make it easier for practitioners and people supported and their families, to find out what is happening and how they can learn more.

This is why the Care Provider Alliance, which represents most of the care and support providers in England, including providers of more specialist mental health, learning disabilities and autism support, have set up a new Community of Practice to share the very best. Through the following link you can access blogs, guides, good practice examples and take part in forums. We also want to hear from you – so do send us information and we will put it on the site.

Thanks for reading this, and I hope you get involved. Together we can provide much better support for people experiences challenges with their mental health and need more support.