NHS South West London's new Mental Health Strategy
Mental health is of critical importance to individuals, communities and wider society and we all want south west London to be the best place to live for emotional wellbeing.
South West London Mental Health Strategy has been developed through analysing population needs and listening to issues raised by residents, stakeholders and those with lived experience of mental health issues. This is a strategy that focuses on prevention (from pregnancy and birth onwards for the whole life course) as much as treatment which values emotional wellbeing and community resilience.
This strategy is for everyone who lives, works or studies in Croydon, Kingston, Merton, Richmond, Sutton and Wandsworth.
The aims of this strategy are to:
• Prevent mental illness and provide early support for recovery as we know this promotes good recovery and reduces the burden of ill-health.
• Increase equity of access, experience and outcomes for all South West Londoners – reducing unwarranted variation and ensuring a fair and sustainable allocation of resources.
• Better support and equip our children and young people and those that support them to manage their mental health and emotional wellbeing in the future.
• Design a new model for the mental health workforce including voluntary and community sector and peer support to tackle mental health recruitment and retention issues.
• Expand bio-psycho-social care to address the mortality gap and the opportunity to increase years of quality life.