Agenda item

(To receive a report from Sarah Connery, Chief Executive, Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LPFT), which provides the Committee with an update on Older People Mental Health and Dementia Services in Lincolnshire. Senior representatives from LPFT, will be in attendance for this item)

Consideration was given to a report from Sarah Connery, Chief Executive, Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation NHS Trust (LPFT), which provided the Committee with an update on Older Mental Health and Dementia Services in Lincolnshire.

The Chairman invited the following representatives from LPFT to remotely, present the item to the Committee: Chris Higgins, Director of Operations and Steve Roberts, Associate Director of Operations for Older People and Frailty Services.

The report highlighted support provided by the Trust for older adults in primary care and local communities; the Trust’s Older Adult Community Mental Health Teams; Home Treatment Teams; inpatient services; demand on older people’s mental health and dementia services; work being undertaken to break-down old referral barriers towards a more open-door transition between services and healthcare providers; and recent developments within the service.

Appendix A to the report provided details of services in LPFT’s Older People and Frailty Division.

During consideration of this item, the following comments were noted:

·       The Committee noted that through Covid-19, waiting times for memory assessments had increased, and that a backlog still existed.  Reassurance was given that steps were being taken to reduce the backlog, as there was an awareness that this had an impact on patient accessing medication;

·       That the dementia diagnosis rate in Lincolnshire was above the national average;

·       It was reported that the waiting times for older adult mental health, those over 65 with complex mental health needs, were very good, on average the waiting list for a mental health appointment was under two weeks.  However, due to the complexity and acuity of the older mental health cases, this then impacted on the work of the dementia assessment referrals, as both services were dealt with from the same team.  The Committee was advised that  older adult mental health services and dementia services were the next area, the Trust was looking to invest in to and that proposals were to separate the two areas to balance resources better;

·       Confirmation was given that for older adult mental health, the service had not seen any escalation of risk in the longer waiting list for this pathway;

·       It was noted that support to older people closer to home was being led by the Lincolnshire NHS Integrated Care Board and formally being piloted over the next twelve months. The Committee noted that LPFT had contributed to a system wide bed modelling project that sought to determine the number of NHS inpatient beds needed for different types of care in Lincolnshire over the next five years.  Early findings of this work had suggested that there would be a need for five additional mental health older people and frailty beds in five years’ time, which supported the current ways of working being piloted;

·       Confirmation was provided that there was a mental health helpline available for adults over eighteen years of age;

·       It was noted that due to the aging population and associated number of people experiencing dementia in Lincolnshire, work was continuing through the Dementia Transformation Programme Board to explore opportunities for further change and investment to create the level of care to meet the needs of the people of Lincolnshire;

·       To meet the needs of the services, recruitment and retention was an important factor.  It was reported that the Trust continued to look at international recruitment, growing their own staff and coming up with alternative roles, which provided additional training opportunities to help retain existing staff and encourage others to come to work for the Trust; and

·       The importance of respite care.  The Committee noted that the Trust had a range of services to support carers, but there was recognition that there was more to be done in this regard.

RESOLVED

1.      That the Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust be thanked for their report and presentation on Older Adult Mental Health and Dementia Services, in particular the level of detail on the report.

2.      That the Committee be advised of any future developments in these services.