The Children and Young People Alliance will work to make Lambeth one of the best places in the world for children and young people to grow up. We have recently developed a plan to support this and one of the things in the plan is mental health support for children and young people; particularly those who don’t meet the criteria to access CAMHS services in the borough, but still have a level of emotional health and wellbeing need.

A new service model for adult community mental health services has been put in place by the Living Well Network Alliance – the organisations in Lambeth working together to improve mental health services.

Three new Living Well Centres have been developed. The centres will be staffed by mental health nurses, occupational therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, voluntary sector staff, social workers and people with lived experience (peer supporters).  Each centre will consist of a Short Term Support Service, and an Integrated Focused Support Service (medium to long term care for people with complex needs). In order to get the right help at the right time there is a Single Point of Access and a Crisis Outreach Service (COS).

Guys and St Thomas (GSTT) Transformation Team, Lambeth Council and CCG commissioners have been working together to help support and develop the commissioned community support (home care) providers.

Community health and social care teams are frequently supporting the same individual at home and should be able to contact each other easily in order to improve the service they are jointly providing. To help bring together the efforts of these teams, the transformation team has produced a guide which provides staff with more information and resources to enable them to work in a better way.

It is known that young black men often present late to mental health services in Lambeth, therefore South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust’s Mental health Promotion Team is working in partnership with Black Thrive to change this and improve the wellbeing support that is on offer for Black men in Lambeth.

They are conducting a series of focus group and talks to determine what this group of men need in order to present earlier to services. They are looking to talk to young Black men aged 18-35 who live in Lambeth and would also like to talk to community workers who engage with this demographic.

Please email sadiki@blackthrive.org.uk for more information and to sign up. All partcipants will recieve a £10 amazon voucher.

To mark World Suicide Prevention Day on 10 September 2019, key organisations across Lambeth came together for an event hosted by Lambeth Together, to discuss how we call all have life-saving conversations.

In Lambeth, on average two of our residents die by suicide each month, with many more making suicide attempts. Across London, 11 people a week lose their life to suicide. Difficult economic circumstances, loneliness, drugs and alcohol, self-harm, trauma and mental health issues, all play a part. The consequences of each death on our families and communities are devastating and long-lasting. Each suicide affects on average ten additional people.

With various changes happening in Lambeth’s health and social care, there may be things that directly affect you or your community, and times where you want to share your views outside of the Lambeth Together public events or consultations. Healthwatch Lambeth is the independent champion for all local people, and they work closely with Lambeth Together to ensure everyone’s voice is heard. Here, they talk about two projects, on new home care services and Early Help for families, where they are involving Lambeth people in the design of their own care.

On Wednesday 4 September 2019, NHS staff, council and public service workers, volunteers and carers who have made outstanding contributions to health and social care in Lambeth were celebrated at the Lammy Awards. The event was a huge success, with over 200 people coming together to celebrate the hard work in health and care across Lambeth.

For the fifth year in a row, the Lammy Awards honoured individuals and teams nominated by the public in 12 categories, with 13 award winners in total. You can read more about each of the awards and the winners on NHS Lambeth CCG’s website.

The free flu vaccination is offered on the NHS to those who are at increased risk from the effects of flu. These include people aged 65 and over, pregnant women, those with underlying health conditions and children (aged 2-10). If you’re eligible, you can get your flu vaccination from your general practice or pharmacy to help protect yourself this winter. Pregnant women may also be offered the vaccine through their maternity service.

Flu can be serious and even deadly for older adults, very young children, and people with underlying health conditions. It kills an average of 8,000 people every year. The vaccine is the best defence we have against what can be a serious illness.

Employees at Lambeth Council, NHS workers in Lambeth and those working and volunteering at other key partner organisations are being offered the flu jab for free. This is to keep key NHS and Council staff well over winter to better support Lambeth people and to help prevent the spread of flu in our borough.