The Equalities workstream brings together three programmes to provide more holistic approach to our equalities work.
The Delivering Race Equality (DRE) in Mental Healthcare Programme was formed in 2005. This innovative programme is a five year plan established to improve access, outcomes and experiences for people with mental health needs. It is designed to tackle mental health inequalities for all people of Black and Minority Ethnic origin, including people of Irish or Mediterranean origin and East European migrants. One of the drivers for this programme was the Government's inquiry into the death of David Bennett.
The DRE programme aims to ensure that it is working towards a position whereby people from BME communities feel more able to access and have improved confidence in mental health services.
Their priorities for the next two years will be: Service users and carers involvement and working in Partnership. They are however undertaking effective work with clinicians and managers; clarifying, strengthening and refining the role and involvement of users and carers; strengthening partnerships with the 3rd sector; incorporating a broader equalities context; and identifying and disseminating the learning. These are in effect their ‘partnerships for success’ a process, which means that diverse stakeholders come to the table and work together to achieve real change.
The Gender Equality & Women’s mental health programme works to address the acknowledged deficits in mental health service delivery in meeting the needs of women. It works on the basis of a set of priorities.
Programme priorities are:
• Ensuring an integrated approach to equalities
• Implementing Public Sector Gender Duty in mental health provision
• Supporting commissioning and the development of LAA’s in respect of gender equality
• Workforce development to build in an awareness of gender equality to support the provision of gender sensitive services
• Key service areas – maternal mental health, acute inpatient care, BME women, Violence and abuse, IAPT and Women in Criminal Justice System
The Mental Health in Later Life programme provides support to local economies seeking to improve services that pay special attention to mental health and wellbeing of people in later life. It promotes an appropriate interpretation of age-equality in mental health services by scoping the nature and extent of age-based discriminatory practice. The programme also aims to mainstream mental health expertise within generic care and support services as part of system reform and patient pathways. It seeks to drive the implementation of Everybody’s Business (2005) and other relevant policy and legislation.
