Oxfordshire Mental Health Partnership has been named regional winner and is now shortlisted for the national Excellence in Mental Health Care Award category.

Meanwhile, a pioneering project developing a Digital Care Assistant (DCA), which enables staff to gather observations from mental health inpatients without waking them at night, has been named regional winner in the Future NHS Award. It will also go through to the national finals, with winners being announced on July 10.

Both teams were chosen from hundreds of nominations and received the unanimous backing of all of Oxfordshire’s six MPs.

The NHS Parliamentary Awards asked MPs across the country to find and nominate individuals and teams they thought had made the biggest improvements to health services in their constituencies across 10 categories.

Stuart Bell, chief executive of Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Two shortlisted regional winners in the NHS Parliamentary Awards illustrates the commitment to innovation in mental healthcare in Oxfordshire and the dedication of all our colleagues at Oxford Health, Oxfordshire Mental Health Partnership and OxeHealth to caring and supporting people locally. I wish everyone good luck in the awards ceremony at parliament on July 10.”

David Walker, chairman of Oxford Health, said: “I’m personally very proud to be part of a trust which provides space for staff and partners to reflect and build on practice. Being shortlisted in the NHS Parliamentary Awards provides an opportunity to share our approaches to care and wellbeing nationally as well as learn from the good work of others, and the nominations from MPs recognise the work staff and partners do every day to improve the wellbeing of people in our communities.”

Dan Knowles, chairman of Oxfordshire Mental Health Partnership said: “The Oxfordshire Mental Health Partnership brings together the best of the NHS and charitable sector in Oxfordshire and helps over 6,000 patients per year. Since inception four years ago we have demonstrated significant improvements in outcomes for our patients and a track record of innovation in service design. This award is testament to the users of our services, our staff, and volunteers; we are proud to have been recognised in these prestigious national awards.”

We are better together

Oxfordshire Mental Health Partnership improves the lives of more than 6,000 people living with mental health challenges a year.

The partnership offers recovery, hope and ambition to people in Oxfordshire through a recovery programme which offers all-round support and care.

Specialist mental health organisations from the NHS and third sector give Oxfordshire people a complete recovery package focusing on emotional and physical care, wellbeing, education, skills, employment, financial stability and housing.

The partnership comprises Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, Restore, Oxfordshire Mind, Response, Connection Support and Elmore Community Service.

Projects include:
• Oxford Safe Haven, offering out-of-hours, non-clinical crisis support;
• Stepping into Wellbeing, a day hospital supporting transition from hospital into the community;
• A Wellbeing Service, offering information, peer support, physical activities and short courses for emotional wellbeing;
• Walking for Wellbeing, offering gentle, accessible physical activity from convenient locations;
• Oxfordshire Recovery College, run by people with experience of mental health challenges, supported by professionals, using an empowering educational approach;
• Paid peer support workers, who have experienced mental health challenges themselves and inspire patients by being proof of the opportunities following recovery. Employed in community and inpatient teams in OHFT adult mental services, PSWs offer people new skills, confidence and paid employment following ill health;
• An individual placement and support worker who help patients who experience psychosis find paid employment during recovery; embedded third sector workers in adult mental health teams;
• Benefits advice enabling people to regain independence and financial stability;
• Housing support including 357 housing units from intensive to low support, help communicating with landlords to help people maintain tenancies, finding housing suitable for people’s needs and helping people navigating the lettings system to access social housing;
• OurSpace, ecotherapy in development with Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust; and
• Microhomes, which will offer people creative housing solutions outside traditional supported housing.

A better night’s sleep

A better night’s sleep, reduced insomnia, improved quality of sleep and wellbeing and a quicker recovery is now possible for our mental health patients thanks to the introduction and roll out of a technology-assisted supportive observation service.

While necessary for care, supportive observations every hour, or in some cases every 15 minutes, can be highly disruptive and distressing for patients, especially when they are trying to sleep.

To eliminate this disruption, the trust launched the DCA observation technology in six rooms on acute inpatient unit, the Vaughan Thomas Ward, at Warneford Hospital, Oxford in a collaborative project with OxeHealth, an IT spin out company from the University of Oxford. The DCA is used to help staff carry out patient observations at night without causing sleep disruption.

Learn more about the NHS Parliamentary Awards.