Posted on: 23 March 2020
West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership (WY&H HCP) has took another step forward towards preventing and tackling poor mental health in Bradford district and Craven; Calderdale, Harrogate, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield by signing up to the Prevention Concordat for Better Mental Health from Public Health England (PHE).
WY&H HCP (also known as an integrated care system) is the first Partnership of its kind to sign up to this national commitment.
Promoting good mental health and wellbeing is an important part of WY&H HCP’s ‘Better Health and Wellbeing for Everyone: Five Year Plan’. Making sure that everyone living across the area has good mental health is one of the ambitions set out in the plan. This includes achieving a 10% reduction in the gap in life expectancy between people with mental health conditions, learning disabilities and/or autism and the rest of the population by 2024 (approx. 220,000 people). This also includes a focus on early help for children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing.
Helping to keep everyone well in the first place, rather than just managing ill health better, is a priority area of work - especially, given the current concerns regarding the impact of the coronavirus on our lives, looking after our mental health and particular those who are the most vulnerable, matters more than ever.
Having good mental health is extremely important, especially during these uncertain times. It can help us to be more resilient, feel good and function well, have more positive relationships with those around us and deal with difficult challenging times, such as those we are currently experiencing. Doing good, does you good. Simple acts of kindness and helping one another out, is not only good for our own mental health but others too – we can all do our bit to improve people’s wellbeing, especially now. Please do so.
WY&H HCP joins a growing list of signatories, who are showing their commitment to preventing poor mental health and promoting wellbeing in local communities. Joining the concordat has only be achieved through WY&H HCP working together across sectors and fully recognising that mental health is just as important as physical health.
Over the coming weeks and months, health and care teams will face intense pressure to fight COVID-19 whilst working together to limit the pace of its spread. Collectively we must continue to do everything we can to support staff and communities. We’re pleased to have joined the growing list of organisations signing up to the Prevention Concordat for Better Mental Health. Working together puts us in the best place possible to improve people’s mental health and wellbeing now and in the future. Right now we all need to pull together’.