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Valuing physical and mental health equally, Parity of Esteem in Wessex Dr Lesley Stevens Director of Mental Health & Learning Disabilities. What is parity of esteem?. NHSE: “My family and I all have access to services which enable us to maintain both our mental and physical wellbeing.”
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Valuing physical and mental health equally, Parity of Esteem in Wessex Dr Lesley StevensDirector of Mental Health &Learning Disabilities
What is parity of esteem? NHSE: • “My family and I all have access to services which enable us to maintain both our mental and physical wellbeing.” • “If I become unwell I use services which assess and treat mental health disorders or conditions on a par with physical health illnesses.”
What is parity of esteem? Royal College of Psychiatrists: • ‘Valuing mental health equally with physical health’. Martin McShane NHSE Director for LTCs: • …parity of esteem means tackling mental health issues with the same energy and priority as we have tackled physical illness.
Why is it important? • People with serious mental illness die earlier than those with no SMI • Almost half of people with SMI have a physical health long term condition, and around 1/3 with LTCs have a mental illness – resulting in worse outcomes and higher cost • Only half of those with terminal illness and depression receive treatment for their depression. • Persisting institutional discrimination against mental health services
Parity of Esteem in Wessex • 5 Year Strategic Vision to embed parity of esteem in all healthcare settings • Priorities include: • Improving physical health care for people with SMI – eg Wessex Health Passport, and extending cancer screening and smoking cessation programmes to engage people with SMI • Delivery of the Crisis Concordat
What can we do? • Focus on the whole person in their unique context • Develop bio-psycho-social models of care across all parts of the health and social care provision , supported by: • Education and training • Commissioning • Clinical pathways • Research • Co-production with people who use services • Integration and Partnership working across primary care, acute, community and mental health providers, social care, police, third sector etc…..