Value in Healthcare Awards: Value and Improvement in Mental Health

NHS Arden and Greater East Midlands CSU and Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust: Coming Home – Mental Health Repatriation Project

The judges said: “The work being done here is exemplary and sustainable, in a complex area with often challenging patients.”

The Mental Health Repatriation Project tackles the use of out of area services and, as a result of this project, three clinical commissioning groups have realised over £12 million in savings.

After an analysis of spend on mental health services in the area it was found that less than 50 per cent of commissioners’ budgets were being spent on local services. A large number of patients were being treated out of area due to lack of sufficient local placements.

Following this, a whole system review was carried out and resulted in the recruitment of an expert mental health team. The team’s goal was to identify patients being treated out of area and carry out individual reviews of those who could potentially be eligible for repatriation. It was recognised that repatriation was not the appropriate option for some, but out of 400 patients reviewed in the first year, 134 were moved to local services.

In addition to the £12 million in savings the project has seen an increase in the amount of specialist beds and local services, meaning fewer people are now placed out of area. The relapse rate of repatriated patients is now just 3 per cent.

• See all the winners of the Value in Healthcare Awards 2015
• See the full list of award judges

Finalists

• Bolton Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service – Raising the Voice of CAMHS Services Users
• Ieso Digital Health
• North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare Trust: Community Triage Team working in partnership with Staffordshire Police
• Northumberland, Tyne and Wear FT: Community Transformation NTW
• Northumberland, Tyne and Wear FT: Initial Response Service – South of Tyne
• Oxford Health FT and Oxford University Hospitals Trust: A stepped care integrated approach to managing anxiety and depression in patients with cardiac disease and their carers
• Pennine Care FT: Street Triage
• South Essex Partnership University FT: Improving treatment adherence, reducing relapse, avoiding admission – schizophrenia, bipolar and schizoaffective disorder patients
• South Essex Partnership University FT: Innovative healthcare development which improves patients’ physical health and well being in a secure mental health setting