York Community Mental Health Hubs

We were commissioned by the York Connecting our City Partnership to help to tackle the challenges in their mental health system. We are working with them to co-design and develop three community mental health Hubs which will serve the city's population.

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 the Trieste model of mental health care - relational, inclusive and holistic.

During the first Hub pilot, a multi-agency team, including  Social prescribers, mental health social workers, carer supporters, peer supporters, clinicians, and recovery workers, provided mental health support to community members. 

The impact

84% of people who interacted with the Hub displayed a reliable improvement in their mental health (measured by reQol scores). 

Everyone was contacted within 5 days of being referred, and all those who provided feedback felt that they achieved what they wanted when seeking support. 

The approach

To successfully design and develop the Hub, Innovation Unit supported the work of a prototyping team. They were 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. This included 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 wider system by bringing 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. This has included building a collaborative culture and creating shared spaces for partners to work together at multiple levels and tackle key barriers collectively.  

Next steps

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