AWP triumphs at regional awards

Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust (AWP) picked up three awards at last week's South West Integrated Personalised Care Awards 2024.

It’s role as part of the Integrated Access Partnership, along with its work on Nature Based Practice, and the introduction of Your Team, Your Conversation, Your Plan, were all recognised for their efforts in transforming the lives of local people.

The principle of Personalised Care is about empowering people to lead the lives they wish to live, asking the person what matters to them and giving them choice and control in their health and care.

AWP Chief Operating Officer, Mathew Page, said: “We are working really hard to transform and improve our services through effective partnerships and by providing outstanding care for our patients. So it is wonderful to see so much of that hard work and expertise recognised regionally. All three of these projects demonstrate our principles of co-production, integration with partner services, tackling health inequalities and providing effective interventions."

Your Team, Your Conversation, Your Plan received the Seeing Me Award last night.

Your Team, Your Conversation, Your Plan is the new framework that has been introduced to replace the Care Programme Approach, or CPA. Co-designed with service users, it aims to ensure that care and support is co-produced and collaborative and that system-wide service delivery is seamless and centred on assisting people to achieve the outcomes that are important to them.

Phil Wilshire, Head of Care Planning Transformation at AWP, who has been leading the development of the initiative, said: “It was fantastic that Your Team, Your Conversation, Your Plan received an award at the South West Regional Personalised Care Awards last night and invigorating to be the company of so many wonderful projects from across the South West. With AWP winning 3 awards it felt like we are fully part of the movement to help care to be more focussed on what matters to the people we work with. I'd like to thank all the many service users, carers and staff that have given their time to co-design the your-team-your conversation-your plan approach, to co-deliver the training and to be willing to try new ways of working."

Nature Based Practice picked up the Green Award at last night's ceremony.

Nature Based Practice is a broad term and refers to a number of different ways that nature can be incorporated into the support offered by Secondary Mental Health Services. Working in and with nature can be profoundly therapeutic for the people we work with, and the benefits are not limited to any one group – people from all backgrounds and with a range of difficulties and needs can be supported in their recovery by nature, including those with the most complex needs.

Dr Richard Brown, part of the Bringing Nature into Practice project team, said: “It has been great to have the opportunity to be involved in supporting AWP staff to bring nature into their practice, and to be a small part of the wide range of AWP staff and teams working hard to enable their service users (and staff) to access the benefits of nature based practice and green care. I hope that the recognition the trust has received through this award will inspire even more teams in the trust to look into what they can do to bring nature into their practice and service offerings."

The Integrated Access Partnership (IAP) and Second Step were triumphant by winning the Working Together Differently Award. This was for the High Intensity User Pilot with emergency Services in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

The Mental Health Integrated Access Partnership is an award winning collaboration between AWP, BrisDoc Healthcare Services, and South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust – along with Police, Fire and Rescue, and voluntary sector organisations.

The IAP provides an integrated ‘front door’ to urgent and emergency mental health care for people in crisis across the South West, who make contact through 999 and 111 services. The team provide both remote and face-to-face mental health triage, assessment and care for patients, as well as clinical support and advice to emergency service professionals.

Kerry Geoghegan, Head of Urgent and Emergency Mental Health, said: "Supporting individuals who use services frequently through an integrated response enables a best practice approach to be delivered. The pilot high intensity user navigator has enabled individuals who call 999 and use other services, such as 111 and crisis teams to experience a new and innovative response aimed at improving care, outcome and efficiencies."

The awards took place last Thursday evening (27 February) at Wells City Hall in Somerset.