Publish date: 20 September 2022
One of our Trust priorities for this year is to increase the way we coordinate care, particularly for people with complex mental, physical and social needs and at points of their transition. This includes reducing hand offs and assessments within our services and working closely with our partners to delivered joined up care.
Our service users and patients tell us about the impact on them when coordination doesn’t happen; “Each break in continuity is experienced as a trauma, a setback which leads to loss of trust and hope.” (Mersey Care service user and member of our ‘Side by Side: Complex Needs’ Group)
Recent analysis by our Strategic Analytics team has shown that in 2021/22, 50% of activity within our mental health services was attributed to just 10% of patients (5,450 people). These higher intensity service users and patients have a greater chance of using our community services too. In our community physical health services, 50% of activity was attributed to just 4% of patients (6,700 people). Again, these higher intensity service users and patients have a greater chance of also using our mental health services.
This overlap between users of our physical health and mental health services highlights the opportunity for better care coordination to reduce fragmentation in the way we respond to meet the needs of our patients and service users, and as how we work with other organisations. It also presents an opportunity for our clinical teams and resources to work more efficiently and with less duplication of effort.
You can read more about our priorities for 2022/23 in our Operational Plan