Berkshire Healthcare has announced the launch of the new Mental Health Integrated Community Service (MHICS), hoping to provide early interventions for people struggling with mental health issues.
Working in collaboration with the local authorities and voluntary sector, the multi-disciplinary team will deliver mental health and wellbeing services across Wokingham; giving people access to specialist support from mental health professionals, community connectors, psychiatrists and pharmacists within a primary care setting.
Dr Sharma from Brookside Practice in Wokingham said: “We are looking forward to further enhancing the mental health support for our patients by working collaboratively with the MHICS team. They will sit between primary and secondary care providing support for a cohort of patients and helping them navigate the system. This will build on our strong provision of mental health support within Earley+ PCN and across Wokingham more broadly via our integrated partnership”.
The launch in Wokingham follows a successful launch in Reading in April 2022.
Leanne Ballantyne, Clinical Transformation Lead for West Berkshire, said: “MHICS uses a person-centred model and a trauma informed approach which collaborates with service users to create a care plan that addresses not just their mental health needs, but the life events and circumstances potentially impacting their mental health too. Importantly this work is done in a primary care setting to cause as little disruption to the person’s life as possible.”
Since 2019, Berkshire Healthcare has rolled out the MHICS service across Slough, Bracknell, Maidenhead, Ascot and Windsor with Reading and Wokingham as their most recent additions. MHICS is the first stage of an ongoing and extensive programme aimed at improving community mental health services in line with NHS England’s Community Mental Health Framework.
