Mental health
Practice
Design
Systems change
The city of York is developing a pioneering approach to improving mental health support within the community, inspired by Trieste.

The York Connecting our City Partnership plans to build 3 Hubs across York which will serve the city’s population. One of these Hubs is a 24/7 Neighbourhood mental health centre, which is part of a pilot commissioned by NHS England. We were commissioned by the York Connecting our City Partnership to help co-design and develop the Hub offer, with an ambition to tackle the problems in their mental health system.

"To be able to come here has been eye opening. It was kind of lifesaving, that I can actually come here and be with somebody else and be able to relate to them and be able to talk through my mental health. To see me from what I was like then, it’s just com"
Hub participant

We brought together a group of people with lived and professional experience of mental health to develop the vision and principles for the first York Community Mental Health Hub, inspired by Trieste.

During the pilot of the Hub, a range of support was provided from a multi-agency team including:  Social prescribers, mental health social workers, carer supporters, peer supporters, MH clinicians and MH recovery workers. 

The impact of the Hub was positive:

  • Everyone was contacted within 5 days of being referred.
     
  • 72% of people provided feedback of that group:
     
    • All achieved success directly related to connected to their reasons for seeking support
       
    • 84% displayed reliable improvement in their reQol scores 

The approach

To successfully prototype the Hub, Innovation Unit supported the development of a prototyping team based in an accessible building with a range of supportive facilities, to create space for the team to work closely and creatively with real people. 

To grow and embed new culture and practice, we facilitated sessions to create collaborative ways of working across different disciplines, organisations and sectors, including running an in depth orientation for the team, coaching the team manager and attending team huddles where new ways of working were recorded.

Through the prototyping phase, we focused on mobilising energy within the system, by bringing system leaders together, building relationships and developing communications tools.

Since the prototyping phase, we have been leading system change, supporting York to make the changes necessary to move from an isolated prototype towards a new community mental health system in York. This has included creating the culture and shared spaces for partners to work together at multiple levels, enabling partners to tackle key barriers collaboratively. 

The pilot has been extended so that a permanent team can continue providing this support and we are now supporting the development of Hub 2 which will provide 24/7 mental health support to York’s residents. 

Project team
Rachel smiling at the camera. She's a white woman with shoulder length hair, wearing a black turtle neck
Rachel Shapcott
Head of Mental Health
Stacey Hemphill smiles at the camera
Stacey Hemphill
Head of Practice
Bethan smiling at the camera. She's a white woman with short brown, wearing a red shirt.
Bethan Mitchell
Service Design Consultant
Fran smiling at the camera. She's a white woman with dark blonde hair, wearing a green cardigan
Fran Brown
Innovation Consultant
Matthew Horne smiles at the camera
Matthew Horne
Joint Chief Executive
See also
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Mental Health Transformation in Greater Manchester

A yellow figure surrounded by different green vines, each with a person at the end acting as support.
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Living Well Derbyshire

An illustration of a man
Project

Living Well UK: Community mental health systems