New digital platform bolsters mental health data collection in Bradford
- 12 December 2018
A new digital platform in Bradford will allow data gathered by voluntary and community services in the area to flow into NHS Digital’s Mental Health Services Data Set.
Bradford Districts CCG has commissioned digital wellbeing platform Making Your Mind Up (MYMUP) to build the service.
Delivered through a partnership between the local area’s voluntary and community sector (VCS), the local authority and the NHS, it will be available to all VCS providers of NHS-funded mental health services in Bradford.
Helen Ioannou, programme lead for Youth in Mind – a VCS-provided young people’s mental health service – told Digital Health News: “We do a significant amount of mental health/emotional wellbeing work with young people from CAMHS [child and adolescent mental health services] waiting lists, and more recently, with young people who have lower level needs [referred] from school nurses, our early help gateway and the broader VCS.
“Currently, the data we produce does not flow to NHS Digital’s Mental Health Services Data Set [MHSDS] and so all the work we do regionally, across the VCS and local authority, is not captured or ‘counted’ on this national scale.”
The MHSDS contains data relating to the care of children, young people and adults who are in contact with mental health and learning disability services.
It is used for purposes including commissioning, clinical audit, research, service planning, and national reporting and analysis.
Kim Shutler-Jones, chair of the Mental Wellbeing VCS Providers Forum, said the ability for the VCS in Bradford to feed into the national data set was an “excellent” development.
“This supports the VCS in terms of having the right infrastructure to operate effectively as part of the health and care system – as well as being able to demonstrate its impact in a way which is most easily recognised,” she said.
The chief executive of Making Your Mind Up, Alex Church, told Digital Health News the new platform was the latest in a series of digital developments in the area.
“Commissioned VCS services provide such valuable support and early mental health intervention to services users of all ages across the Bradford district,” he said. “Working in partnership with them and the CCGs has enabled us to provide ideas and support on how these services can implement digital solutions to work alongside the traditional delivery models.
“We have consulted with commissioners, front line delivery staff, and NHS Digital to create systems for Bradford that not only allow service users to access online support through interventions and webinars, but also allow VCS services to record and feed data into the MHSDS.
“Utilising SNOMED codes within the system will allow us to feed data and the positive impact that peer support group work and GSH [guided self-help] is having on service users,” he argued.
As part of the Bradford project, MYMUP will also deliver training to staff and offer a range of evidence-based assessments that providers can conduct with patients.
The economic and social cost of mental illnesses to the economy is estimated at £105 billion a year.
5 Comments
FAO : CCG – Mental health services – Bradford assessments
Patient care and support from electronic information.
Re: Patient Referral declined due to new information systems on access to MH services.
Nicola Julie Dixon
nicolajdixon@hotmail.com
23/03/1977
412 209160
07906578074
I was recently discharged from MH secondary services due to the wrong information given at an assessment.
I wondered how this was possible as I did not attend one!!!
After having various issues with dual diagnosis and secondary care involvement since 1996 for manic depression, severe anxiety disorders, bipolar and social anxiety issues I have now had to take this to be looked into further by BDCT advice and complaints.
I am still not receiving treatment after 6 months, also my complaint still is not being undertaken by MH within Bdct and Aire/Wharfe.
I now realise why!!!!
Computer generated information that does not even consider the patients illnesses and conditions either mentally or physically in a human context.
I am now extremely concerned about the status of the MH system and how it is possible to get the treatment I need from the NHS.
I shall be definitely taking this further.
I am totally shocked and disappointed with this service and I have been waiting and suffering due to the fact that no no one has had the decency to make patients aware of how these services are told to abandon patients.
I will look forward to hearing from you regarding this matter.
I am so glad to hear that my full records an be accessed, I will be able to get all the information required to complete the application from the secondary MH team to overturn their current negligent treatment.
Thank you for your time.
I do hope that all others will be informed correctly so they too can obtain the correct treatment before it is too late.
The concept of “evidence based” assessment and treatment is a national scandal because it is a contortion of the word “evidence”. To explain this, imagine you had experienced abuse as a child. An “evidence based” assessment will ignore this central detail. It will not attempt to untangle the breaches of trust, the sexual abborations if they exist, the feelings of confusion, the difficult to emerge feelings around who did it, who allowed it to happen, who ignored your efforts to tell someone, the anger, the sadness, etc etc etc. Evidence based amount to just 1 or 2 symptoms – not causes. So typically, they will say ‘lets reduce your anxiety”. They then get you to self-report on a tick sheet (copyright of Pfizer), and then they get you to fill in the same tick sheet at the end of treatment. If the difference is good enough, the service provider claims money from NHS England. They take their bung, then you are ejected, left with your central heartache left untreated. This is part of a national policy of abusive Mental Helath budget care, started by Tony Blair to get people back to work – now rolled out as the norn across the UK. The people who continue to promote this should be arrested!
I’m unaware of the point you made regarding GP practices, I would argue that as with anything, there can be good and bad uses, data collected and used for academic research will have saved lots of lives, and many breakthrough treatments and practices will have been created, this will have been conducted ethically by practitioners who genuinely care about saving lives and this is a example of how data is being used in the right way. Changes in practice cannot be conducted without data to back it up. I believe that there is much more concern with social media data that is used to inform consumer habits, and as we have seen in the media is a problem. To question the NHS at a senior level is unfortunately not something I have the knowledge or understanding to do. I do however see day in day out the hard work that mental health practitioners, psychologists and VCS providers are doing on the ground. I like to try and focus on the this and regardless of the arguments presented about data, everyone of them is required to submit reports and send data as part of the work they do. The system (to my understanding) is helping them do that quicker and enabling them to do more of the face to face work. I respect all you have said and I will certainly
Research some of the points you have made.
I think a step below the points you raise is a question of accountability. If a VCS is given recurrent funding (often hundreds of thousands of pounds) from CCGs, I think it’s reasonable that they are accountable for the work they are doing. The service I work for receives regular funding and we are required to demonstrate how we are justifying the money we receive. This is tax payers money after all. Reading this article from a grass roots level is music to my ears, if I had a system that allows me to demonstrate the impact of my work without me having to spend hours writing reports and filling in spreadsheets then this would be beneficial to me and my service. As with all other sectors we cannot just expect to receive money and not show how we are spending it. CCGs are also judged on performance just like everybody else, if a commissioner decides to spend more money on non medical interventions then this is a good thing, and data can also show that social interventions are just as powerful as medical ones. I think the points you raise are interesting and have made me think about things from a different perspective, however I value my job and the work I do and see everyday the impact it has on people who come through the door, we would not survive without CCG funding and I believe in the integrity of our commissioner. If ten stages up things are a different story then that is something beyond my control.
From my understanding, this is more to do with voluntary and community services in Bradford, being acknowledged and recognised for the work they are doing in preventing mental health issues. Working in VCS services myself, I see how non medical approaches can benefit, and unless we can send this to the NHS how can they inform change? Data sent is more to do with contact time and demonstrating impact, rather then confidential disclosures. Im no expert however I think this is positive, demonstrating change may also help VCS and community services argue for more funding to be distributed to them.
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