There’s no question that the importance of health and wellbeing has been brought to the forefront even more during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This isn’t to say that health and wellbeing, especially mental health, hasn’t been a priority for us and partners before the pandemic nor will it cease to be post-pandemic. But it’s particularly played a part in each of our lives in different ways since March last year, whether it be at work, at home or in our communities.

Here in our HSCP, health and wellbeing has been a big part of ensuring the health and safety of our patients, service users, carers and staff in our on-going response to the impact of COVID-19 on our services and the health and social care needs of our city. But for us, health and wellbeing is a big part of what we do.

We kick off August’s Partnership Matters Briefing featuring the unveiling of Leverndale Hospital’s stunning new mural, which is part of a wider project to transform the campus. The mural is the product of partners on the Design in the Dale Group, who have been working closely together over a number of years to improve the health and wellbeing of people on site through arts and health activities. One of the aims of the mural was to provide a more appropriate setting to treat those impacted by mental ill-health. As the mural demonstrates, our physical environments play an important role in our health and wellbeing. I’d like to congratulate all those involved in improving the physical space. The mural has truly made the space a more welcoming and caring environment for us to work in and support our patients and their families.

We also launched in early July a survey for our care experienced young people to share their views about mental health services, open to our young people in care aged 12 to 26 both current and past. We’re keen to know what their experiences of support have been like and how services can improve. The survey continues to be open until 17 September, so please promote the survey and encourage eligible young people to take part. More information about the survey and how to access it is included in our briefing.

This month we also feature Craig Davidson, who is a Senior Health Nurse in our HSCP’s Asylum Health Bridging Team. Craig is a finalist in this year’s national Royal College of Nursing Awards along with Mental Health Nurse Clare Manley from Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust. Craig and Clare are being recognised in the ‘Innovations in Your Speciality’ category for their podcast series that were developed to tackle the challenge of nursing retention. Read more in our feature about how the podcasts came about and were developed, and in the meantime we wish Craig and Clare all the best at the awards ceremony.

Our HSCP’s website is one of the main ways in which we keep people up to date with what’s happening across our HSCP and with partners, and we’ve made a couple of new additions to it this month that we thought would be helpful to share. Our IJB’s fifth Annual Performance Report 2020 – 21 is now available in its summary and full versions, and we also have a dedicated webpage for the upcoming review and development of our next Strategic Plan 2023 – 26.

As in previous briefings, we continue to include recent news articles available on our HSCP’s website and upcoming events and meetings. You can read them by selecting their relevant link.

An update on how we continue to respond to and manage the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our health and social care services is also provided.

Moving beyond Level 0 with most COVID-19 restrictions being lifted on 9 August has been a real milestone for us in the pandemic, and I hope that we’ve felt more normality returning to our lives. This is because we were seeing the number of COVID-19 cases falling, as well as the number of people requiring hospitalisation declining.   

Many times throughout the pandemic we’ve talked about that ‘light at the end of the tunnel.’ Whilst we’ve made big gains, we can’t become complacent; COVID-19 is still with us. We must continue to do all that each and every one of us can do to suppress the virus and keep ourselves and others safe, and there’s still protective measures that are staying in place. This includes taking opportunities to get vaccinated, participating in testing, self-isolating when required, continuing to wear face coverings as appropriate and following other Government and Public Health measures.  

As we’ve seen, new variants can happen very quickly and impact on the gains that we’ve made. And as the First Minister reported this week, the number of daily cases are high and there can be no guarantee that previous restrictions won’t be reintroduced. Over the next period, the virus may well pose challenges for us again as a result of more people being able to move more freely and meet up in larger groups. We’ll also have the challenges that the winter months usually bring.

Within our HSCP, our Executive Group and our Accommodation, Social Distancing and Recovery Group continue to manage and respond to the impact of the virus on our services, and we continue to ensure that we comply with Government and Public Health Guidelines on COVID-19. The health and safety of our patients, service users and staff in our service delivery arrangements remains paramount.

With the summer months coming to a close, I hope that you’ve been able to enjoy a break at some point. Our HSCP’s Senior Management Team and I remain ever thankful and grateful for all of the work of our staff and partners in keeping the health and social care needs of our city supported. As I’ve said before, you are what makes Glasgow uniquely Glasgow.

Susanne