Over recent months we at the Gloucestershire VCS Alliance have been pleased to have been involved, alongside other VCS partners, in the development of the Complex Emotional Needs project led by Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust.
We look forward to continuing to play our part in supporting the service’s continued development and are pleased therefore to introduce, and pass on this message from Leah Brooke– Mental Health Voluntary Care Sector Navigator for the Complex Emotional Needs Service (CEN Service).
“As a Navigator I am working to improve connection between NHS Mental Health Services and the Third Sector across the county, aiming to improve collaborative working and encourage appropriate signposting. My post is funded by Suicide Prevention and one of the aims is to enable better joint working and effective communication between services working with individuals who may present risks and concerns. By better knowing the VCS I hope to be able to facilitate better information exchange and help where situations may feel ‘stuck’.
Complex Emotional Needs is rapidly being adopted across the UK as an umbrella term loosely describing a variety of experiences including those often termed as ‘personality disorder’. This group often feel they have a disjointed response from mental health services so the CEN team are working hard to develop new and integral to this aim is better joined up responses with our VCS colleagues.
The service is co-produced with experts by lived experience. We are taking a building blocks approach to better stepped care, starting at grassroots levels within the communities and around primary care. We want to promote early intervention and a ‘no wrong door’ approach. We will ensure to explain more as we know more but we hope to start some of our initiatives this summer.
One thing we are extremely keen to do is to create a ‘Community of Practice’ this will involve all agencies who are supporting people with complex emotional needs who would like to be involved in a reflective practice/ action learning forum. If this is something you would like to be involved with please let me know as I will be organising our first meeting shortly.”
Contact details > Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ; Mobile: 07966 300804
Glos VCS Alliance also invite you to get in touch if you have any questions about VCS involvement in the CEN project.
