A Blueprint for Lancashire

Introduction and Welcome Helen Harrison; Chair

Our Vision: Mental Wellbeing For All

Our Mission: To revolutionise attitudes to mental health conditions and improve the mental wellbeing of everyone in Lancashire.

Strategy aims: Revolutionise attitudes, Challenge perceptions, Alter provision

We believe: by making Lancashire a beacon county for mental wellbeing we can reduce the number of people who experience a mental health condition

We believe: that if we ensure everyone living with a mental health is treated as an equal the positive effects will not only improve their lives but the lives of everyone in Lancashire

Our strategy is designed to be aspirational and ambitious. It advocates change.

We can’t facilitate and kick start this change on our own.

We do not expect, or desire, to deliver the outputs listed on our own.

We want to unite and unify those already working in the field of Mental Health and Mental Wellbeing

We believe our strategy can build on and enhance all the good work already being undertaken across the county.

We want this to be more than just our strategy, we want this strategy to be a ‘Blueprint for Lancashire’.

Strategy Principles Stewart Lucas Chief Executive Lancashire Mind

The Ten Core Beliefs that drive, inform and fuel our strategy

1. Everyone can achieve and maintain mental wellbeing.

2. Mental wellbeing is as important a factor in someone’s life as physical wellbeing. Everyone has a central role to play in their own happiness and mental wellbeing.

3. Mental wellbeing is far more than simply the absence of a mental health condition and is associated with a range of social and health benefits.

4. High levels of mental wellbeing reduce the likelihood of someone developing a mental health condition and plays a crucial role in how well someone with a mental health condition manages it.

5. Living with a mental health condition is not a barrier to someone having a full life and playing a full and active role in society.

6. Whilst 1 out of every 4 people will at some point in their life experience a mental health condition, less than one in a hundred will ever develop a severe condition.

7. At all times the focus should be on someone’s strengths and abilities and not on their mental health condition. When barriers appear it is society as opposed to the person’s mental health condition that creates those barriers.

8. Living with a mental health condition is not a negative, bad or maligned state of being. Negative impacts come from societal attitudes and the inability to provide or offer appropriate support.

9. Most mental health conditions can be effectively managed without specialist clinical intervention.

10. Co-production and community ownership is central to the development of any initiatives designed to either improve mental wellbeing or support people living with mental health conditions.

Two Proposed Areas of Focus: Mental Wellbeing Mental Health Conditions

Fifteen Proposed Outputs. We can not deliver all of these on our own. We all have a role to play.

Output i) Building social connections /capital Output ii) Interactive online resource for mental wellbeing and resilience

Output iii) Developing mental wellbeing and resilience skills Output iv) Resilience from an early age

Output v) Targeted wellbeing in the workplace Output vi) Awareness campaigns promoting mental wellbeing

Output vii) Promotion of mental wellbeing across the county Output viii) Transitional personal support

Output ix) Pre and Post Crisis support Output x) Peer and Group Support

Output xi) County wide remote access self- assessment Output xii) Targeted training to normalise attitudes to mental health conditions

Output xiii) Campaigns to normalise societal attitudes to mental health conditions Output xiv) Promotion of normalised societal attitudes to mental health across the county

Output xv) Reactive and responsive provision of information and advice Output xvi) Altering the opinions of key decision makers, influencers and policy setters and their approaches to mental health conditions.

Next Steps: 1) Formation of a ‘Steering Group’; 2) Creation of a delivery plan for each output; 3) Use of existing structures to unify, interlink and drive all of our work; 4) Make Lancashire the beacon county for mental wellbeing.

We are all changing people’s lives Together we can change the world

The Strategy in a regional context: Craig Barratt Director of Workforce Innovation and Transformation, Lancashire Care Foundation Trust