The Greater Manchester Health & Social Care Partnership are fully committed to reducing ethnic inequalities within the GM mental health system. It is fundamental to our devolution ambition of eradicating post code lottery in all its form across our conurbation. The Synergi National Pledge provides an opportunity to link in with other systems across England and ensure we both learn and share best practice on effectively managing issues on inequalities.
There are number of ethnic inequalities themes within GM mental health system that we wish to progress:
We are working with wide ranging stakeholders, including mental health BAME organisations, BAME service users and NHS commissioning and provider leads, across GM. We have also set up a GM MH Ethnic Inequalities Task & Finish group to bring together these stakeholders to develop plans to address the ethnic inequalities within our system.
GMHSCP facilitated a Greater Manchester system workshop in October 2019 to raise awareness of the issues related to inequalities in access, experience, and outcomes. The event was well attended, and we had representation from multiple stakeholders.
As a result of this workshop we set up a GM Mental Health BAME working group to ensure the actions agreed at the workshop would be operationalised. The actions, as listed below, are being progressed by the working group:
The working group have put forward a number of recommendations, some of which were addressed as part of our wider GM MH Covid-19 response.
Further work is currently being undertaken to drive sustainable change in our mental health services for the BAME communities in GM.
Due to the maturity of our MH governance in GM we have been able to fast track support into our BAME communities to effectively respond to the Covid-19 pandemic Significant levels of funding and system facilitation were provided to ensure extensive services were made available to all our BAME communities in GM.
The work being undertaken by the six commissioned BAME organisations is summarised below:
Jewish Action for Mental Health. There have been over twice as many deaths in the Jewish community from COVID-19 than the general population. Jewish Action for Mental Health (JAMH) and Greater Manchester Neshomo have joined forces in response to the pandemic to provide a one-stop shop for mental health needs across the Jewish community. The holistic service offers befriending, mentoring, counselling and therapy both over the internet and, as we progress, face-to-face. They’re also providing Zoom art therapy workshops, group mindfulness sessions, a peer support group for clients and peer group facilitation training. They’ll continue to facilitate their Jewish community professionals’ monthly meeting on Zoom, supporting agencies with specific cases. To get in touch, please contact us on our helpline 07510 204 844 Email: [email protected] or visit www.jamh.org.uk
Caribbean and African Health Network (CAHN). CAHN’s Emotional and Wellbeing Support Service have seen increased demand from people with mental health issues in their community. Their Black Caribbean and African counsellors are responding to anxiety, stress, and other forms of emotional turmoil. They offer practical support, befriending and one-to-one counselling therapy sessions in English and French over the phone and Zoom. They’re also raising awareness of mental health via their weekly Health Hour on Saturday morning via zoom to help members of their community talk about mental wellbeing as a way of combating the stigma. If you have been affected by COVID-19 or you have any worries or concerns, they are here to listen. Contact: [email protected]
Yaran North West. Yaran Northwest established as a not-for-profit organisation to provide a variety of services to meet the needs of vulnerable adults, new immigrants, families and couples from Middle Eastern background in Greater Manchester who need urgent help with counselling, advocacy, recovery and wellbeing. The support is provided by bilingual accredited mental health practitioners and bilingual befriending mentors who provide online befriending and mentoring sessions. http://www.yarannorthwest.com/
East meets West is a project run by a team of Chinese counsellors and psychotherapists. The project aims to: Provide cultural appropriate counselling and psychotherapy to Chinese people; Overcome language barriers and enable clients to use their preferred language to gain access to therapies. By doing so, they offer group therapy and one to one support to clients over 18 years old, living in Greater Manchester who prefer using Cantonese or Mandarin in communication with therapists. For further information or referral please contact [email protected] / https://www.waiyin.org.uk/
BAME Holistic Mental Health. The impact of COVID 19 has been significant and disproportionate for BAME communities across the country and we know that this is mirrored across Greater Manchester. BAME Holistic Mental Health are part of a collaborative that has responded to the mental health and wellbeing needs of BAME communities as a consequence of this impact.
As part of this collaborative Manchester BME Network CIC has brought together a number of local providers to deliver a holistic support service for South Asian communities across Greater Manchester. Partners include: the Pakistani resource centre; Bangladeshi Women’s Organisation; Women’s Voices; Goldmark Training; 4DE Consulting. The collaborative will deliver one to one counselling support, intensive counselling/therapy, webinars, befriending ,signposting and chai and chat conversations. They’re also offering support in several languages including Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi and Bangla. https://www.manchestercommunitycentral.org/black-minority-and-ethnic-network-page
For further details and referrals please contact [email protected]
Training and Support for Services and Exiles (TS4SE). TS4SE Cooperative works with refugee and migrant community groups and local community groups that want to improve how they work with their diverse local populations. They’re working with three refugee-led community organisations to mobilise volunteers within their communities. We’ll be working with the Manchester Congolese Organisation (MaCO); the Eritrean Community Association and Rethink Rebuild (Syrian community) to train volunteers to help tackle loneliness and isolation and to ensure that some of the most marginalised and underserved communities in GM have access to clear, up-to-date guidance and support. http://ts4se.org.uk/training-consultancy.html
We are engaging and working with a plethora of BAME organisations across GM to ensure we are fully connected to the needs of our BAME communities. We have regular meetings with these organisations, as well as facilitating the wider system MH BAME working group.
We are monitoring the impact based on meeting the needs of the GM ethnic population.
Very positive based on the outcomes we have seen as a result of the investment that we have provided multiple BAME organisations to support their response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
You can read our interim evaluation report here.
As a result of the funding multiple services have been set up for our BAME communities, with both the quantitative and qualitative outcomes data providing very positive insight into the impact of these services.
We haven’t faced any great challenges as the GM Health & Social care system has realised the need to support the BAME communities, especially with the disproportionate impact that they have suffered during the Covid-19 pandemic.
This is being undertaken through the groups that we have mobilised – further work will be taken in the next stage of the development process of operationalising services which will ensure connectivity into communities, service users etc.
In addition there is an opportunity for us to develop a relationship with the GM Race Equality Panel convened by the Mayor (https://www.greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/what-we-do/equalities/race-equality-panel/)
The evaluation data that we have seen based on the services that have been mobilised as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic have been universally positive.
Due to the nature of partnership working within the GM MH system, we are able to mobilise and effectively deliver without any major issues.
We are part of the national Advancing Mental Health Equalities Taskforce and we are sharing our best practice via that channel to ensure other areas of England are able to learn from our work programme.
Positive response from the national team and other areas.
Due to the nature of the Taskforce, we have an appropriate route to champion the cause.
The development of the ‘Living Well’ model across GM will help expediate this as the model supports the ethos of meeting the specific needs of the local population.
Positive, with commitment to pick up the recurrent support into respective local organisations that support their BAME communities.
Constructive dialogue to date so not envisaging any issues.
We are working closely with our internal research team who will prioritise this commitment to ensure we have the relevant research and data available to make informed commissioning decision on an ongoing basis.
This is work in progress.
None whatsoever.
Yes, we are more than happy to do so.
To ensure we have a delivery plan in implementation phase around the sustainable support into our BAME communities.
With our working group in place and senior commitment, we are not envisaging any issues.
In October 2021, Synergi plans to host a National Pledge Alliance Symposium for Pledge Makers, Pledge Supporters, Synergi Creative Spaces partners and communities of interest, inspired by Pledge commitment 4: To provide national leadership on this critical issue.
We would be keen to present, with leads from some of our BAME organisations, about the extensive support offer we provided our BAME communities during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Happy to be fully involved and take up any role that Synergi believes will support the National Alliance.
The pledge provides the necessary drive to ensure we, as a Greater Manchester Health & Social Care system, remain focused on delivering sustainable services to meet the needs of the ethnic minorities within Greater Manchester.