Supporting people experiencing mental ill-health
Supporting children and young people
During the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health services had to rapidly adapt and embrace virtual and remote working to ensure support continued to be provided to local people. Although services had continued to provide a virtual support offer during COVID-19, not all children and young people had the equipment, support, or confidence to access support through a digital platform. This had meant some children and young people had become more isolated, which was likely to have a negative impact on their emotional wellbeing. Estimates suggest that around 9,000 children and young people in Coventry could now have a probable mental disorder.
Kooth, an online virtual support app for emotional wellbeing and mental health, for children and young people aged 11 to 25 went live on 12 April 2021; and as part of recovery planning activities, additional investment had been made by the Coventry and Warwickshire Clinical Commissioning Group for the recurrent growth of the children and young people eating disorder service and the children and young people crisis team.
Transforming mental health services
The NHS Mental Health Implementation Plan 2019/20–2023/24 sets out a plan for transforming mental health services. To support the transformation of local mental health services across the Coventry and Warwickshire footprint, the Council has entered into a partnership agreement with the Coventry and Warwickshire Clinical Commissioning Group and Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust, whereby NHS organisations and local authorities contribute an agreed level of resource into a single pot (the pooled budget) that would then be used to drive the integration and improvement of existing services.