Oxford Health are partnered with Equally Well. Equally Well is an initiative from New Zealand which seeks to promote and support collaborative action to improve physical health among people with a mental illness. It is hosted in the UK by Centre for Mental Health in partnership with Rethink Mental Illness, the Chair of the Clinical Group and Chair of the Expert by Experience group along with our growing membership.
In July 2019, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust was proud and excited to sign the Equally Well UK charter. We pledged to tackle the current health inequalities and work to improve the quality and life expectancy of people experiencing a serious mental illness. Working across boundaries and in collaboration this membership continues to support joint learning and strengthen the ability to address the mortality gap.
A year on, the trust aim is for everyone to know and put into practice our Equally Well pledge.
Recovery Campus
The Recovery Campus, based on the Littlemore Mental Health Centre is run by Response. It provides supported housing for those with serious mental illness.
A lot of their residents have co-occurring long-term physical health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure etc. As part of the newly implemented FACT (Flexible Assertive Community Treatment) Team, a GP clinic has been setup on the campus.
The clinic is run by Dr Andrew Wilson (GP from Temple Cowley Health Centre), a mental health nurse from the Recovery FACT Team and a member of staff from the Recovery Campus. The clinic ran smoothly and on time every week until the COVID-19 pandemic when social distancing measures and lockdown took hold which impacted upon face to face contact and Dr Wilson’s availability due to prioritisation of workload.
However, the FACT team and Dr Wilson have been able to keep in regular contact throughout this time and a mental health nurse has been able to carry out basic physical health checks.