Helping people stay well and feel well in York

Throughout the year the Ways to Wellbeing team continued to receive referrals from York and Scarborough Teaching Hospital and Foss Park Hospital. The team piloted referrals from the Yorkshire Fatigue Clinic and worked with York District Hospital’s pain clinic.

Ways to Wellbeing received 421 referrals over the 12 month period:

93% patients achieved their goals while working with Ways to Wellbeing

89% felt more able to manage their own health and wellbeing after working with Ways to Wellbeing

86% stated they would not have made changes/accessed services without the support of Ways to Wellbeing

Ways to Wellbeing Small Grants Fund

Working in collaboration with the City of York Public Health team, we managed the delivery of the Ways to Wellbeing Small Grants Fund to provide grant opportunities to the VCSE sector to reduce health inequalities in York.

16 local VCSE groups and organisations were awarded a share of the £60,000 fund, to enhance the depth and breadth of the opportunities they can deliver in our local communities.

We worked closely with Public Health York and Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership to identify health inequalities and patient groups who would benefit from Social Prescribing. We received referrals from GP surgery staff, Adult Social Care, Local Area Co-ordinators and self-referrals using our dedicated Social Prescribing phone (01904 437911).

The Primary Care Link Worker team received 3,541 referrals over the 12 month period:

95% of patients achieved their goals working with their Social Prescriber

92% of patients felt more able to manage their health and wellbeing since working with their Social Prescriber

95% of patients would not have made changes to improve their health and wellbeing if they had not worked with their Social Prescriber

We reduced healthcare contacts both at the GP surgery and York Hospital by around 50%

All patients who accessed our service saw an improvement in at least one area of their life

Cancer care calls

Our team contact patients following their cancer diagnosis at three-month and 12-month points.
These calls are to ensure that patients have holistic support in place. We connect patients to various support within the city such as the Leveson Centre, York Cancer Care Centre, Macmillan counselling, cancer psychology, and benefits advisors for cancer-specific issues. Patients can contact us for non-medical support at any point.

Frailty clinic

A Social Prescriber works as part of the team at York’s Frailty Clinic. This is an ongoing piece of work in which people who are classed as frail with multiple long-term health conditions are proactively identified and invited to attend the clinic where they receive a full holistic approach from a GP,
Physio, Occupational Therapist and our Social Prescriber. So far results have shown that 75% of patients have opted for social prescribing support.

Green Social Prescribing

We worked in partnership with Hey Smile Foundation and University of York to explore the impact of participating in Green Social Prescribing on people’s mental health. We spoke to 45 eligible participants; collecting and recording data about their mental health before and after participating
in nature-based activities. The data showed that 62% saw improvements in levels of depression and 70% saw improvements in anxiety.

To support and improve the lives of people experiencing serious mental ill-health in York, we have been involved in the delivery of the Community Mental Health Transformation work through the management and administration of the Community Mental Health Transformation Grant, the co-production work steam focusing on York priorities such as eating disorders, and participating in the new Mental Health Hub through Social Prescribers and York Volunteers.

The Community Mental Health Transformation grant was created by the York Mental Health Partnership in collaboration with Connecting our City Partnership to develop and award funds to support York’s VCSE sector and their work to improve the lives of those experiencing significant mental ill-health in York.

7 VCSE organisations in York received grants, totalling £250,000 for a two-year period.

In January 2023 we established the Extra Discharge Support Service (EDSS) which is the VCSE’s response to supporting pressures on York Hospital. The service provides support to people on discharge from hospital to make sure they are safe and well at home and are supported to live active and fulfilling lives after their hospital stay. This can be a time when people feel very vulnerable and
worry about their ability to cope at home. Many of the needs they have are social, rather
than health or care related.

Funding for the service was secured from the Integrated Care Board and a partnership structure was established bringing together the skills, expertise and experience of different VCSE organisations. Age UK York provide assisted discharge, Ways to Wellbeing a dedicated social prescriber, North Yorkshire Sport access to the Get Moving Programme and York Cares Centre provide a Carer Advice Worker.

This work was funded by the Integrated Care Board.

Healthwatch York helps shape health and social care services in York by making sure people’s experiences are right at the heart of decision making.

The Healthwatch York team provides opportunities for local people to influence, shape and  improve health and social care services, including hospitals, care homes, GP surgeries, home care services and many others in York. We provide information about local services, improving and increasing access; signpost to independent complaints advocacy; listen to views about local services and make sure these are considered when services are planned and delivered.

What we did in 2022-23…

1,301 people shared their experiences of health and social care services with us, helping to raise awareness of issues and improve care.

576 people came to us for clear advice and information about topics such as mental health and the cost of living crisis. Our Advice and Information service provides independent, confidential support to help people find the correct information, to understand the options available and to get the right help. Whether it is navigating primary care, finding a dentist or choosing a care home, we will support you.

Healthwatch York Reports

Services can’t make improvements without your views. That’s why over the last year we have made listening to feedback from all areas of the community our main priority. This allows us to understand the full picture, and feed this back to services through our published public reports:

• Children’s Mental Health November 2022
• Children’s Mental Health Update Report March 2023
• Cost of Living Report December 2022
• Independent Evaluation of Healthwatch York 2022-23
• Annual Report 2022-23

York Ending Stigma (YES) – Let’s Talk Mental Health is a fully lived experience campaign to end mental health stigma in York. Our campaign facilitates York residents, employers, and employees to share, as much or as little, of their mental health experiences through a variety of means to bust myths, challenge incorrect stereotypes, and to end mental health stigma.

Supported by our YES Project Coordinator, our team of YES Champions helped to end mental health stigma in 2022-23 through the following activities:

• Published 19 YES blogs, 9 WHY suicide prevention blogs and 4 WHY poems
• Recorded 19 podcast episodes, which included a five episode series on ‘mental
  health stigma at work’
• Produced 10 YouTube videos
• Held information stands at public events across York, including York Pride 2022, Kyra International Women’s Day event, University of York Fresher’s Fair, and York Volunteers Recruitment Fair
• Delivered self-harm anti-stigma sessions to North Yorkshire Police, Scarborough
  hospital staff, and to a local employer
• Delivered a lived experience mental health at work session on World Mental Health Day to over 100 Associated British Foods staff
• Hosted a sell-out Open Mic Night in partnership with York Mind at York Theatre Royal themed on mental health stigma
• Produced the publicly available YES Employer Framework which aims to end mental health stigma in workplaces across York

I see your framework as a really important strand for everyone’s workplace strategy. – York Employer

You teach me something every time I listen to you, thank you. – YES Podcast Listener

This project is funded by City of York Council.

YES launched the WHY project which is a suicide prevention campaign, which included the production of a documentary film, conversation resource, and a dedicated website: www.WhySuicidePrevention.co.uk

The documentary film shares 6 YES Champions experiences of the realities of living with suicidal thoughts. We held four in-person and one online screening events, and started writing a WHY suicide prevention book to be distributed next year. 

I thought the film was superb… I think the insights and experiences were skilfully portrayed so as to almost be essential viewing.