The aim of this session with statutory service staff is to agree and articulate a shared set of challenges and opportunities related to supporting people with co-occurring conditions.

Planning your session

Prepare an introduction that includes the findings from any staff engagement already undertaken. This will help set the context for the discussions within the session.

Agree any specific areas you would like to focus on based on what you are trying to achieve and the above.

Who should be involved

• Staff from both mental health and substance use services, including:
• Nursing staff
• Social work staff
• Psychiatrists
• Team leads
• Where appropriate, staff from additional statutory services such as any liaison or outreach teams, or acute services.

Activities

Depending on how well staff know each other, it might be useful to start with an activity to get to know each other’s services. This discussion tool can be found here.

The core activity within this workshop is open discussions. In groups of up to 6, discuss:

• What are the main challenges in getting people the right support at the right time?
• What obstacles or challenges do you face in linking with other services?
• How might we build capacity within services to support mental health or substance use?
• Where would you like to see improvements made?

Slides from the staff conversation workshop

Outputs

Where this has been done before, key themes include:

You can find the outputs from Statutory Service Staff discussion sessions here.

Supporting resources for this tool

• Agendas and slides:

  • Agenda for staff conversation workshop
  • Slides from the staff conversation workshop

The aim of this session is to develop an articulation of how the third sector as a whole can support people in different ways, and how this can enhance the impact of statutory services and support sustainable recovery.

Planning your session

Prepare an introduction that includes the findings from any engagement already undertaken. This will help sent the context for the discussion.

Who should be involved

Staff from a range of third sector organisations that support people with mental health and substance use support needs. This should include:

• Case holding services (such as Penumbra)
• Peer led services (such as recovery communities)
• Advocacy

Activities

Discussion One – getting to know each other and surfacing issues

Invite participants to form small groups and discuss their experiences supporting people with co-occurring mental health and substance use conditions. Encouraging them to think about:

• What support they provide, including details of any specific interventions
• The range of needs they support, including those outside of mental health and substance use
• How they respond when people present with needs/issues outside of their expertise

Feedback key messages to the group and highlight any shared experiences.

This activity can be enhanced by using the ‘Creating an Offering Map’ which can be completed by individual services either before or after the session.

Discussion Two – understanding relationships with statutory services

Invite participants to discuss their experiences working with statutory services, noting:

• The services they work with
• The nature of the relationship
• How they communicate
• Where the relationship could be improved

Note taking tool for this activity

Agendas and slides:

• Agenda for non-statutory staff conversations
• Slides from the non-statutory conversation workshop

Outputs:

• Output from the non-statutory conversations workshop

The aim of this session is to have a constructive dialogue about how stills and expertise across all staff can be better utilised to support people. And identify what processes and infrastructure are required to support that. 

Planning your session

• Bring together the insights from the individual sessions, highlighting any commonalities and commending good practice.
• Set the discussion within the local strategic context.
• Develop ‘Personas’ for each of the Four Quadrants to use as part of the discussion.

Who should be involved

• Participants from previous sessions.
• The Senior Responsible Officer to set the scene.

Activity

• Matchmaking care

The outputs from these sessions can help identify

• Where service level changes are required; and what these changes should be.
• Articulate roles and responsibilities across all services in relation to different dynamics of co-occurring conditions.
• How leaders at different levels can support collaboration.
• Peer networks and champions who can be involved in designing and driving change.

Examples of analysis and insights

Having conversations as a ‘tool’ can be quite intangible and daunting. Below are some of the types of insights that you might get from using this structured approach:

Where collaboration can work

• Examples of emergent collaboration that could be formailsed between services.
• Identification of the types of cases that would benefit from further collaboration, and the roles and responsibilities in that.

Where staff need support

• Identification of training and support needs across specialisms
• Examples of how to support staff networks.
• Additional connections required between services to help staff provide better support collectively to individuals.

How flexible approaches can work

• Highlight the complexities of supporting co-occurring conditions within service silos and identifying where joined up approaches can enhance care.
• Identification of when staff would benefit from input from other services/professionals in supporting an individual.
• Sense check any proposals for high level pathways.