Agenda item

(To receive a report from Kakoli Choudhury, Consultant in Public Health, which highlights some of the mental wellbeing activities undertaken during 2020/21 and progress towards the implementation of the Suicide Prevention Action Plan)

The Chairman invited Shabana Edinboro, Acting Programme Manager, Public Health Division, to present the report to the Committee, which highlighted some of the mental wellbeing activities being undertaken during 2020/21; and the progress being made towards the implementation of the Suicide Prevention Action Plan.

The Committee noted some of the activities that had being undertaken with regard to Mental Wellbeing, which included the Lincolnshire County Council Employee Health and Wellbeing Strategy, which had been launched in May 2019; the provision of dedicated Health and Wellbeing information on George; the provision of lunchtime wellbeing sessions; One You Lincolnshire; resilience training modules; Mental Health First Aid and confidential counselling support.

It was reported that evidence had shown the negative impact of social isolation and loneliness had on people's health and wellbeing, both physical and mentally.  The Committee noted that the Public Health Division were currently providing services and resources which supported the social connection network, which included: the Joint Strategic Asset Assessment; rural and coastal communities' health inequalities; social prescribing; and the Communities of the Future Project.    

The Committee was advised that with the help of the council's Communication Team, the Public Health Division had developed a '12 Positive Steps to Better Mental Wellbeing' social media campaign, which had been shown during December 2020 and January 2021.  It was highlighted that a virtual mental health webinar had also been arranged in October 2020, to highlight the importance of mental wellbeing.

It was highlighted to the Committee the impact Covid-19 had been having; details of the three main groups affected; and the impact of long Covid-19 were shown on pages 103 and 104 of the report.

The Committee was advised that the Suicide Prevention Strategy 2020-2023 and the Action Plan for 2020-2021 had been published in October 2020.  It was noted that the strategy and the action plan had been produced in collaboration with the Suicide Prevention Steering Group (SPSG), which was a system-wide, multi-agency partnership consisting of statutory and non-statutory organisations who were interested in or involved in reducing suicides in Lincolnshire.  A copy of the action plan was provided at Appendix A to the report for the Committee to consider.

Overall, it was noted that progress on the action plan had been good, despite the pandemic.  The Committee noted further that the majority of actions were on target.  Two actions shown in 'Red' on the action plan 1.2 – Identify/develop clear pathways of support for both individuals and professionals and 4.2 – Develop Real Time Surveillance  were behind target, mainly as a result of the re-deployment of staff into the Covid-19 response; and that their delivery dates would need to be adjusted. It was also highlighted that it was planned to contract 4.2 out for a short period of time. The Committee was advised that the one action 4.1 – Explore alternative data sources to gather intelligence to aid prevention of suicidal behaviours shown as being 'Yellow' was behind target as a result of the current time commitment of Intelligence Teams across the system on the Covid-19 response; and as a result of this, the delivery date might have to change.

In conclusion, it was noted that during 2021-2022, it was planned to: develop the Suicide Prevention Action Plan for 2021-2022; continue to provide support to the workforce through the Employee Health and Wellbeing Strategy; continue to deliver the Social Connections work programme; and to change the '12 Positive Steps to Better Mental Health' social media campaign into an electronic document.

The Committee also noted that as soon as recovery from Covid-19 allowed further wellbeing work was planned to look at children and young people; working age adults; and older age adults.

During discussion, the Committee raised the following comments:

·       Health and wellbeing information to be made available on the business portal to help small businesses;

·       Some concern was expressed relating to effect of Covid-19 on children and young people;

·       Suicide prevention training – The Committee was advised that this was being looked into.  It was however noted that the Mental Health First Aid had an element of suicide prevention.  There was a need for some  Suicide Prevention training to be made available to all Councillors; and

·       The need to use various media methods in training courses.

The Director of Public Health extended thanks to the Acting Programme Manager, Public Health Division and the rest of the Public Health Team for all the hard work they had done.  This was supported by the Committee.

RESOLVED

That the report presented be noted and that continued support be given to the Public Health Division for leading on Mental Health and Suicide Prevention.