Welcome to a brief update of my ethnic mental health carers forum. This is the January 2024 update where the forum focused on updates from mental health NHS trusts. The update was specifically on the new equalities initiative from NHS England, which is the Patient Carer Race Equality Framework. (click on picture below to zoom in)

As of 2024 the mandatory framework will support NHS trusts and providers on their journeys to becoming actively anti-racist organisations by ensuring that they are responsible for co-producing and implementing concrete actions to reduce racial inequalities within their services

Usually for my ethnic mental health carers group, I focus on things outside PCREF, but since PCREF has a heavy focus on minority voices, my group looks to engage with NHS trusts and their PCREF ambassodors on updates. A special note is the group is interested on how minority carers are being identified and included.

I am aware many NHS mental health trusts learn from each other so for the January group we had the following attend and present

As usual I brought in a special guest speaker from Middlesex University to speak about the following topic which she published in The Practising Midwife for the 2023 edition in November. Kristina spoke about “Mental Health Context for Minoritised Ethnic Individuals” and was specifically interested in why Perinatal birthing minoritised ethnic women and people suffer from poorer outcomes. Just to note, Krishna is not a mental health nurse, but a nurse under midwifery at University College London Hospital. She also teaches Midwifery at Middlesex University.

NELFT PCREF Presentation

Before we move onto Kristina’s presentation, the ethnic carer forum opened with a presentation from Asia Zaman who is the Transformation Project Manager for PCREF at North East London NHS FT. She was joined by Tarek Seeraullee who is the Havering Carers Lead at NELFT.

NELFT NHS has taken strong steps to not only incorporate PCREF, but also align it towards the hospitals carers strategy. The NHS trust presented that they admit their patients and carers have poorer outcomes, but things will improve through the following drives and more.

• Upcoming workshops and events (increase cultural awareness) – carer led, to understand further about needs, perspectives etc.
• increase Staff Knowledge and Awareness) – Develop workshops carer led, to share knowledge and awareness.
• Increase Partnership Working – Task and Finish group- carer led, Havering best practice example? NELFT to consider aspects across all directorates.
• Co-production – Carers group NCV-NELFT CarersVoice has been set up andrunning, for adults and young people.Workstreams in progress.

Presentated was 10 PCREF competencies where the carers strategy was aligned. We then had a Q&A session from attendees some carers were also from NELF.

SWLSTG PCREF Presentation

It was kind for South West London & St George to attend and present their focus on PCREF. This section was presented by Tom Carter who is the Peer Involvement Coordinator, Involvement Team. I know SWLSTG NHS trust fairly well as I have been hosting a carers peer forum for 4 years. My carers group in SW london covers the same areas as the MH trusts being Sutton, Merton, Richmond, Wandsworth and Kingston.

Tom presented the focus for PCREF at the NHS organisation, however we did have a few attendees from the area interested in the focus on ethnic minority carers. This is because they saw the presentation from NELFT and did not wanted to be left out. There was specific interest from Wandsworth carers centre and a few others.

On a side note, the mental health trust has developed a new induction video, which you might want to view below.

• Kristina Goh presents on Mental Health Context for Minoritised Ethnic Individuals

As mentioned earlier, I was joined by Kristina to talk about her publication on why minorities groups giving birth had poorer outcomes. The group cannot always restrict itself to mental health NHS services as the equality challenge is presented in all other health sectors include acute services.

Kristina presented that one of the leading causes of maternal death antenatally and postpartum is mental ill health (10-20% of women).

Kristina mentioned that poorer outcomes could be challenged with the following.

Cultural competency training for healthcare professionals
Cultural competency vs cultural humility
Workforce needs to be reflective of the population we care for- think outreach, retention, development opportunities
Non-pharmaceutical interventions

You can view Kristina’s article from the following site. https://www.all4maternity.com/mental-health-context-for-minoritised-ethnic-individuals/

• Kent & Medway Primary NHS Trust presents on PCREF

I have been involved at Kent & Medway for a long time and sit on their triangle of care steering group (see below).

https://www.kmpt.nhs.uk/carers/triangle-of-care

KMPT were very kind to engage with the ethnic MH carer forum to update us on their progress. We were joined by a number of Kent & Medway presenting their focus although time ran out before CNWL presented on their drive to include the Patient Carer Race Equality Framework.

CNWL, South London & Maudsley, plus Oxleas NHS and NHS England will update in February.

This concludes my brief update for the Ethnic mental health carers forum January 2024.