Agenda item

Directors of Public Health (DsPH) have a statutory requirement to produce public health reports. These reports are the DsPH’s professional statement about the health of the local community.

The 2018-19 report focuses on mental wellbeing across the life course in Medway.

Discussion

It was noted that 83% of people experienced anxiety, low mood or sleeplessness at some point in their lives. The Annual Report had tried to focus on wellness rather than illness. In Medway, 79% of people aged 16+ had high life satisfaction compared to an England average of 82%. The figure for having a sense of wellbeing was 73% for Medway compared to 75% nationally. It was acknowledged that Medway would want to improve these figures. People in the 45 – 59 year old age group could face particular challenges that could impact on their mental wellbeing as this cohort often had the challenge of managing their own lives while also having children and older relatives who may need support. Public Health was developing approaches for employers to help support staff facing challenges that could impact on their mental wellbeing. Medway had won a national award for its suicide prevention work and had been shortlisted for a health service journal award. There was a need to build community capacity, including within the voluntary sector, in order to support people to be able to do more for themselves.

The Following issues were discussed:

Mental health and support for middle aged renters – A Member raised concern about the length of wait for children to access CAMHS services and that it was difficult to obtain a referral. The Member was also concerned that many people of late middle age who privately rented became unable to afford their rent as their income reduced due to working less or retiring. She highlighted that renting property had been identified as a cause of mental stress and that this was an issue that needed to be addressed. The Member referenced a case where a resident with serious mental health challenges had had enforcement action taken against them by the Council’s Planning department. She felt that consideration should be given as to the potential impact on mental health and had highlighted the case to promote cross departmental working on mental health issues.

The Assistant Director of Adult Social Care said that the latter concern would be raised at the Mental Health Steering Group. The Director of People – Children and Adults requested that the Member provide further details so that the case could be investigated. The Director had attended meetings with the Chief Nurse of Medway NHS Clinical Commissioning Group to express concern about the slow rate of improvement in terms of timeliness of access to emotional health and wellbeing services for young people. The issue had been discussed at the Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee with the Committee having requested that Medway Community Healthcare and NELFT attend the Committee to provide an update. There was also concern about waiting times for looked after children. The Director of Public Health said that there was a need to commission services to achieve outcomes rather than just outputs and that supporting vulnerable people into work had a positive impact for the individual and could also help to reduce the likelihood of them needing more intensive support in the future.

Social Isolation – In response to a Member concern about how social isolation would be tackled, the Director of Public Health advised that work to implement recommendations from the Social Isolation Task Group was ongoing. There was a need to consider how to take this work forward as part of Medway’s City of Culture bid.

Voluntary Sector involvement and other issues – A Committee Member highlighted the need to involve the voluntary sector in overcoming the challenges highlighted and for strengthened joint working as voluntary organisations were struggling to cope with demand. The Member considered that there were not enough bereavement services available and was concerned about the number of people using food banks in Medway. The Director of Public Health said that there was a need to engage the whole community, including the voluntary sector and to use resources effectively to  reduce the likelihood of people needing to use treatment services.

Decision

The Committee noted the report, findings and recommendations.