Enfield Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Forum 2024

On Thursday 22 February, we hosted the Enfield Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Forum at Green Towers Community Centre in Edmonton.

Our North London Mental Health Partnership, between Barnet Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust and Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust have been transforming Community Mental Health Care over the past 3 years as part of the NHS Long Term Plan to treat more people in the community before they become seriously unwell and require hospital admission. One of the ways we’ve been doing this is through hosting community events.

We hosted a day of learning, connection, and empowerment, to give attendees the opportunity to find out more about the transformation of community mental health services in Enfield, health inequalities and the work being undertaken to address these, and the vital resource our local community organisations provide in helping residents across Enfield to enhance their mental health and wellbeing.

Service users and carers, our Voluntary and Charity Sector partners, interested members of the communities we serve, and a host of other organisations from across Enfield, had the chance to engage around the services on offer and how people can be referred into them.

After the event was opened by Mark Pritchard, Senior Service Lead for Community Mental Health Services, he handed over to Chris Wild, Lead VCS Manager. Chris focused his energising speech on the collaboration across Enfield and highlighted the passion everyone in the room had for mental healthcare. “We want to make sure people are not going to hospital when they don’t need to. We don’t want our A&E inundated with people from the community suffering from mental health issues, when together we’ve got all those resources. This is how powerful it really is when we all get together like this, when we work together, with VCS groups from the community, with the NHS, with everyone in this room. That’s how important this is.

“This is the third event we’ve done like this and it’s getting bigger and better each year. The feedback we get from service users is that if they don’t know we exist, they’re not going to come and use our services. It’s so important we get out there in the community and show people that we are here. Being present is the most important part of any recovery journey.”

“How can we physically make a difference? One of the first things I wanted to do was find out from everyone in the community, from service users and staff, what community means to them. Here is some of the feedback. Community is about belonging. It’s about love, hope, happiness, wellbeing. It’s working together to build better relationships in the community. It’s helping everyone around, without expectation. It’s a cup of tea and a chat. It’s a meaningful conversation between friends. It’s borrowing milk and sugar. It’s about helping the most vulnerable people. Help. Help is a big word. It’s coming together through adversity, it’s protecting our children, but more than anything it’s about teamwork.”

Service Users

Service User, Andreas, gave a powerful speech about his own experiences and recovery journey from Crisis and his experience with mental health services. “I thank everyone at Mind and the numerous community organisations, some of whom are here today, for the assistance and hope they have given me and my family since April 2022.”

“I have been invited to speak at several mental health events in the past few years and this has helped me and my family feel connected to our community and that there is support available when we need it. I believe everyone deserves the best access to services in the community, for all of us to thrive, not just survive. I hope people in this room are part of the solution, to ensure that this happens for member of the community. Thank you.”

Through holding events like this, and through working together, we can help more service users and their families, just like with Andreas.

Carers

A stark point on visibility of services was made by Mark Warwick from Enfield Carers. Some people are living as carers, but don’t even know that they are classed as carers and eligible for support. Mark said that they support 7,500 carers in Enfield, but estimates that there are up to 35,000 carers in Enfield and that only 20% of them are seeking out the support they are entitled to, because they don’t even know that they are carers. It’s only through engagement at events like this and people getting in touch with them, can they be signposted to the support that they are entitled to and deserve for all they do.

“About 60% of our carers are supporting people with mental health conditions. We’ve definitely had carers as young as 5. The difficult ones to get to are young carers, as they don’t self-identify as carers. We know a lot of them are struggling. We have a service to support them. There is a lot that you guys, as professionals, can do in referring to caring services and I’m glad we’re having these conversations.”

Next steps

In addition to speeches, a host of workshops, mindfulness sessions, and physical health checks really brought everyone in attendance together and resulted in a positive experience for all in attendance.

Banner days, such as Great Mental Health Day, are great for raising awareness. However, every day needs to be a great mental health day. This year’s Enfield Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Forum wasn’t the endgame, it was a way of accelerating the conversation and further building upon the collaboration that is going on across the patch, to ensure great care across the communities we serve.

Who was there, who can they support, and how can you make referrals

A full list of the organisations in attendance can be seen below. Shortly before lunch, some of them filmed videos with us explaining who they help and how you can make referrals. As the event was so well attended and the room was so full of people having productive conversations, some of the videos may feature background noise.

Children and Young Peoples Services (CAMHS)

Enfield Council Welfare and Debt team

Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Art Therapy team

Enfield Carers Centre

Healthwatch Enfield

Wellbeing Connect Enfield

Expert By Experience Involvement Register

Enable Drug and Alcohol service

Thrive Into Work Enfield

Prevent, Enfield Council

BEH Community Engagement Team for Enfield

Early Intervention Service for Psychosis