The Barnet Community Core teams have been at Brent Cross Shopping Centre this month showcasing what’s available around the borough. 

The core teams were there with some of our Voluntary Sector colleagues including: 

- CommUNITY Barnet
-Young People Thrive
- Barnet Wellbeing Service

This was a fantastic opportunity to connect with our community and we had lots of interesting conversations with the public, allowing us to signpost some services, hear experiences and tell people about the Community Transformation Programme. 

We even had a visit from Alison Moore (in red) a cabinet member of the Health and Wellbeing Board in Barnet!

DIALOG is an outcome scale to assess a service user's quality of life and experience of care received. This includes Mental Health, Physical Health, Leisure Activities, Friendships, Accommodation, Relationships, Job Situation, Meetings with Healthcare professional, Help You Receive, Medication and Personal Safety. 

DIALOG+[PLUS] can help with conversations between service users and their clinicians by focusing on the lowest scoring areas. Staff and service user work in a strength-based therapeutic way, co-producing a holistic care plan. 

Selina Aktar (left) is a DIALOG+ Lived Experience Facilitator and Sade Olutola (right) is a DIALOG+ clinical facilitator.They have been delivering training to staff, and more recently, to our voluntary sector colleagues to support them in having effective DIALOG+ conversations with service users and carers. to aid in engagement and feedback. They have been working with Mind, Connect Communities and Bridge Renewal Trust. This is a brilliant example of where our Community Transformation programme is showcasing integrated working. 

A huge thank you to Sade and Selina for the training so far and to all staff who have made the move over to DIALOG+ in the last few months!

NHS England has launched a major new campaign to encourage the use of the “111, Press 2” service for Mental Health. This service is being rolled out across London in 2023-24. Locally in North Central London, our service will be hosted in partnership by Barnet, Enfield & Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust and Camden & Islington NHS Foundation Trust.

This service will be based at St Ann’s Hospital and will provide a 24/7, all-age service for people who need advice and support with Mental Health. The hub will also support the police with Section 136 across North London.

We are advertising the two roles below: 

Crisis Single Point of Access Clinician

Assistant Practitioner

If you have any questions please get in touch:

Rajiv Beechook, rajivbeechook@nhs.net, 07392191688
Shilpa Nairi, Shilpa.nairi@candi.nhs.uk, 07917559036

On Monday 17 July we welcomed Adele McCormack, new Deputy Chief Operating Officer, to the Partnership. 

Adele will be joining us from Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, where she has been an Operations Director for Adult and Specialist services across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough for the past three years.

Prior to that role, Adele worked as the Head of Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Commissioning and Contracting for the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), where she was involved in commissioning one of the first ever First Response Services (24 hour crisis line through 111) and worked with NHS England to help develop a community mental health exemplar service, creating a stepped care model across primary and secondary care.

Adele's career has included working in substance misuse, criminal justice and the voluntary sector, and she also set up the SUN Network (now a community interest company), designed to ensure co-production in the commissioning of health and social care services. Adele is passionate about service improvement but is also keen to focus on creating a workplace that is fun, creative and high performing.

We're very much looking forward to Adele joining the team, and I'm sure you will all join me in making her feel very welcome, particularly as she meets many of you during her first weeks and months with the Partnership. 

Last week we marked the 75^th anniversary of the NHS, a huge milestone and opportunity to celebrate and thank everyone who is part of it. Staff across the Partnership hosted tea parties and celebrations and we held a special afternoon tea to honour long-serving staff. 

Jinjer Kandola, the Partnership's Chief Executive is pictured, far left, with members of the Wellbeing Team and West Core team at St Ann's Hospital in Haringey where celebrations were held. 

Check out our NHS75 celebrations photo gallery and our long service award gallery

There are lots of activities in and around our five boroughs, led by local council partners and community groups, to help support positive wellbeing and good mental health. Here’s a selection of some regular activities, online sessions or extra support currently available:

1. North Central London Waiting Room - The NCL Waiting Room is a new NHS website aimed at young people and their parents or carers to help navigate support options for mental health and wellbeing while waiting to be seen at their local mental health service. 

2. Good Thinking: Young People's Mental Health

The last 18 months have been particularly hard for young people’s mental health and wellbeing. Young people and their families in need of urgent help with their mental health can get free 24/7 support from trained NHS professionals by telephone.

The NHS has set up free telephone lines across London for young people in distress, open all day, every day, and staffed by trained mental health professionals. They can provide immediate support, or refer people to other sources of help if needed.

Find your local crisis line number here.

3. Men's Wellness on the Water

'Men's Wellness on the Water' will be run by a male British Canoeing-accredited instructor and is open to all adult men, from absolute beginners to more experienced paddlers. Did you know that paddling’s also great for calming your mind and relieving the stresses of everyday life. Click here to find out more.