THE PROFESSIONALS

THE beginning of each Senedd is a time of keen interest for Adferiad Recovery’s members.

It’s when the new Welsh Government sets out its priorities for the next five years, and when we see whether our campaigning at election time has helped set the agenda.

This time, however, it’s different. Just as we are entering a new Senedd we are also entering a new post-Covid era as we slowly emerge from the pandemic. Never before has there been such an obvious opportunity to reassess our approach to meeting the often-complex needs of patients and their carers.

I’ve been reading the Welsh Government’s priorities for the new Senedd and I am struck by two in particular which Adferiad Recovery argued for in its manifesto.

First, there will be some welcome new funding for mental health services.

Second, the government is keen to ensure that young people do not miss out on support.

However, as glad as we are to welcome these priorities, there are other key priorities which are missing.

We know that following the pandemic there are likely to be many more people in Wales needing support for mental health and/or addiction issues.

Of course, anyone in need of help should always receive a positive referral to an appropriate source of support, but it’s also vitally important specialist services define their role clearly and avoid medicalising normal reactions to life events. Specialist services should give priority to those in greatest need, aiming to assist those patients receiving

higher-end (and more expensive) services to achieve recovery.

If the access routes to services work robustly so that specialist services are allowed to focus on the patients who need them most, this will have the greatest impact in terms of improving people’s lives.

There is another very fundamental change which is needed in the delivery of services. Currently we have a system which pigeonholes people. If they have a mental illness then they go to a mental health service; if they have an addiction issues they go to addiction services, and so on.

Is this a sensible approach? We are all very complicated people, and often our needs are very complicated too. A patient with mental health problems may also have an addiction issue, as well as problems paying the rent every month or difficulties with their employment, not to mention experiences of loneliness or poor physical health.

Why can’t we treat people as the whole they are? We need a new approach where

commissioners don’t commission services in silos. Instead of using conditions to exclude people from services, we need to commission dynamic services which meet the complex needs of the citizens of Wales.

Services need to be joined-up and structured to deliver an individualised approach rather than trying to fit the person to the service. Only then will they truly reflect the people they serve, and only then will they truly be effective.

The Mental Health (Wales) Measure 2010 identified that a holistic approach is essential – considering accommodation, social life, physical health, money etc as well as mental health needs if we are to make any difference to those who need help.

Finally, it is worth noting the success of the Welsh Government in the past 10 years or so in tackling the stigma surrounding mental illness, partly through funding the successful Time to Change Wales anti-stigma campaign run by Hafal (now Adferiad Recovery) and Mind Cymru.

Nowadays, people are more comfortable speaking about mental health issues than they were decades ago. They are far more open about their struggles, although there is still some way to go before stigma becomes a thing of the past.

The same cannot be said about addiction, and certainly about those with co-occurring issues who experience both addiction and mental illness. One of the priorities for the next five years must be to address this stigma because if there is shame around any of these issues, people will continue to hide their problems and avoid accessing the vital help they need.

I’ve spoken about the priorities for the new Welsh Government, but as a new charity we hope to address these issues as well. Later this summer we will be conducting a national consultation to find out exactly what our beneficiaries, partners and supporters want our own priorities to be for the coming years, and exactly how they want us to hold the Welsh Government to account. I look forward to updating you.