Community Connector Roles within the Mental Health Integrated Community Service (MHICS) Teams in East Berkshire - Frimley Health and Care Integrated Care Board (ICB)

This is a contract result notice, not an open opportunity. Details from the official award data.

Frimley Health and Care ICB (the Commissioner) sought to commission Community Connector roles within the MHICS Teams across East Berkshire.

Adverts were placed on Contracts Finder and the Find a Tender Service and an Invitation to Tender (ITT) process, based on the Open procedure, was undertaken during summer / autumn 2022 to identify the Most Economically Advantageous Tender and therefore determine the incoming provider.

In 2019, the ICB was successfully awarded funding to be one of 12 national early implementer sites to deliver Community Mental Health (CMH) transformation.

This has enabled the design and implementation of integrated primary and community mental health care for adults and older adults with Significant Mental Illness (SMI), built around Primary Care Networks (PCNs), so that more patients with SMI are effectively supported in primary care.

As part of the ICS-wide CMH transformation programme, there will be a total of 9 MHICS Teams, covering the 10 PCNs across East Berkshire.

MHICS offers a service to patients in primary care with significant mental health difficulties who have not met the criteria for, or whose needs are not met by existing primary and secondary care mental health services.

Flow into the MHICS service is mainly from primary care, but also for patients stepping down from secondary care and will continue to evolve as part of the One Team approach as the programme continues to transform the way people with mental health needs are supported in their communities.

The Community Connectors will form part of the core MHICS team (minimum 1 WTE Community Connector per team), and their role will include: • Help identify psychoeducational, emotional, socio-economic needs that impact on mental wellbeing through direct 1:1 work with MHICS clients, and use this understanding to support engagement and access to appropriate local and community resources • Actively link, develop and bridge out to the infrastructure of VCSE support services across East Berkshire to offer: - Earlier intervention - Longer appointment time - Practical support and help - Guided self-help resources - Follow ups and ongoing support - Onward bridging where needed - Links with community resources - Particular links into Wellbeing Services and Carer Support • In line with a client's goals and needs, brief psychoeducation/psychosocial approaches may be employed, which, when within their competency, may be delivered by Community Connectors and/or jointly with the Mental Health Practitioners.

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