Award-winning mental health practitioner’s self-help resource reaches thousands of people
A South Norfolk based mental health practitioner was announced as the winner of the Health Inequalities Award at the glittering Safer Kinder Better Awards ceremony.
Adam Smith has worked at NSFT since 2014 and provides a vital service as a Primary Care Network (PCN) Lead Mental Health Practitioner (MHP). Working across four GPs, Adam is the first point of contact for mental health in a primary care setting and provides early intervention support that can prevent further referrals to the trust.
The awards night saw Adam recognised for not only being a dedicated registered mental health nurse, but also for his creation of MHSelf-Help, a webpage with mental health self-help resources. To date, it has been accessed by over 7,000 people.
“It just kept getting bigger and bigger adding more resources, and now it’s used in practices across Norfolk and some in Suffolk,” Adam said.
“My initial thought was it would be a great way to list everything in one place, enabling service users to access support themselves at the right time and without having to arrange another appointment. They can return to it at any point and also direct others to it.”
Among the resources are crisis support, 24/7 telephone helplines, self-referral services, mental health charities, workshops, NHS self-help guides, podcasts, videos, books and more. There are also links sorted by categories including children and young people’s services, financial and housing support, LGBT+ support, bereavement support.
The link has generated close to 200 Friends and Family Test (FFT) responses which enables the PCN Mental Health practitioners reflect and make improvements about the service that is delivered.
Adam said: “We’re very aware of waiting times within our services and the NHS. This can be an anxious time while awaiting help and support and service users can feel that their life remains on hold till this is offered.
“By promoting the MH resource, this enables engagement with videos, podcasts and guides. Providing a bridging resource until involvement from services is available.
“While I see several people each day, promoting self-help is a huge element of our jobs. We want to empower service users to navigate their own journey, and this resource enables them at any point to do that.”
The MHSelfHelp link is available at: https://beacons.ai/mhselfhelp.