Berkshire Healthcare launches new mental health service led by people with personal experience of mental health difficulties.
A new service, delivered by healthcare practitioners who have experienced mental health difficulties, is now available for residents in Bracknell, Slough, Ascot, Windsor and Maidenhead from this week.
Published January 2024
Delivered by Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, the new service (known as the ‘Peer Support Service’) is part of the Mental Health Integrated Community Service (MHICS) and will be run by healthcare practitioners whose own experiences mean that they are in the unique position of being able to understand and relate to the challenges faced by people struggling with significant mental illness, as well as their families and carers. People who use their own experiences to help others in this way are known as ‘lived experienced practitioners’.
Sarah Sylvester, one member of the new team states; "Sharing your story with someone with lived experience can validate your experience and give you confidence to strengthen your resolve towards hope and recovery."
The Peer Support Service will be available to people who have been referred to the Mental Health Integrated Community Service as of 2023.
Sessions can be conducted either face-to-face in the community or through online peer support, providing flexibility and accessibility to meet the diverse needs of the community.
Fostering Change Through Lived Experience
Lived Experience Lead Holly Dale has been working to support the transformation of Community Mental Health services in her role since September 2022. Drawing on her own experiences of the mental healthcare systems, she inputs into decisions being made about mental healthcare by the trust and commissioners.
Holly, who pioneered the development of the new Peer Support Service, states, “There is growing evidence of the value of peer-supported interventions in emergency, crisis management and community mental health services. Lived Experience Practitioners support trust and engagement with services and ‘walk alongside’ service users to improve their health and wellbeing by sharing their own experiences of recovery.”
Colette Selmer, Lead Consultant Clinical Psychologist, who supported the development of the service said, “This launch brings many benefits for both service users and our wider mental health teams. Lived experience practitioners provide the ability to appreciate the client’s worldview and empathise with them. By using their own experiences to give service users hope, they can also encourage engagement and participation with medical, psychological, and social interventions. Wider mental health teams can also benefit from the advice and ideas that Lived experience practitioners bring to improve services.”
What is the Mental Health Integrated Community Service (MHICS)?
This multidisciplinary team work in collaboration with the local authority and voluntary sector to deliver mental health and wellbeing services. People can access specialist support from mental health professionals, pharmacists, community connectors, psychiatrists, and all in a Primary Care setting.
This new ethos of collaboration supports peoples’ mental health as well as the wider determinants of well-being such as housing, employment, and physical health.
Find out more about MHICS on our website
Looking forward
The launch of the Peer Support Service and the recruitment of the new team bring positivity and a sense of real progression in how mental health care is delivered. Holly Dale “I am so immensely proud of the fact that we have been able to bring this offer to our communities and look forward to seeing how it evolves in the coming months.”
Mel, a member of the new team, is reflective of her own experiences and highlights the fresh perspective that lived experience brings to the table. "Having only recently joined the organisation, I am overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of my new colleagues and their absolute commitment to helping those who reach out for help," Mel shared.
Find out more about the MHICS Peer Support Service on our website
The MHICS Peer Support Service is part of the Community Mental Health Transformation Programme in Frimley.