This document outlines a mental health and wellbeing strategy for Ayrshire & Arran from 2015-2027. It focuses on three key outcome areas: sustaining inner resources, increasing social connectedness, and creating mentally healthy environments for learning and working. For each outcome, it describes the rationale and evidence behind the strategies, provides examples of planned activities, and notes implementation progress so far. The strategy aims to take a life course approach and some challenges to implementation are increasing resources, coordination, and addressing wider social factors.

1. Mental health & wellbeing in
Ayrshire & Arran
2015 - 2027

2. Outline of presentation
• Context and background
• Rationale for decisions
• Process of development
• Implementation
• Challenges

4. Outcome 3
Increasing social
connectedness,
relationships and
trust in families
and communities
Outcome 1
Promoting Health
& healthy
behaviours
Outcome 2
Sustaining inner
resources
Outcome 4
Increasing social
inclusion and decreasing
inequality and
discrimination
Outcome 5
Increasing
financial security
and creating
mentally healthy
environments for
learning &
working
Outcome 6
Creating a safe and
supportive environment
at home & in the
community
National Outcomes Framework

5. Rationale for decisions - 1
• Rationale and national outcomes set and
unlikely to change – 12 year strategy (with 4 X
3 year action plans)
• Reviewed six outcome areas and considered
other activity underway. Some are attended to
by other areas of activity: healthy behaviours,
decreasing inequality, increasing financial
security and promoting safe and supportive
environments

6. Rationale for decisions - 2
• Not addressed elsewhere and requiring specific
attention from a mental health & wellbeing
perspective:
– sustaining inner resources
– increasing social connectedness, relationships and
trust in families and communities
– creating mentally healthy environments for working
and learning
• Across the life course: infants, children & young
people, working age adults and older people

7. What’s involved?
• Sustaining inner resources:
– at individual level
– capacity and ability to be resilient
– relates to purpose and meaning
– having coping skills to deal with everyday stresses
• One of the most important priority areas in
the strategy

8. What’s involved?
Increasing social connectedness, relationships and
trust in families and communities:
• Asset based community work shows promise
• Social Prescribing (in widest sense)
• Work in Care establishments (children and older
people)

9. What’s involved?
• Creating mentally healthy environments for working
and learning
– nurseries, schools, special schools, colleges and
universities.
– community learning for all ages
– focus on the mental health & wellbeing dimensions of
the workplace, including the role of work itself

10. Rationale for decisions - 3
• Took these areas for activity and reviewed all the
evidence
• Based on the evidence, an expert group identified
what should be in place and the “best-buys” for
mental wellbeing for:
– Infants
– Children & young people
– Working age adults
– Older people
• Created the first of four, three-year action plans

11. Implementation
• NHS Board approved the 12 year strategy and
first three year action plan on 2nd Feb 2015
• Community Planning Partnerships endorsed
and support it
• Health & Social Care Partnerships have
endorsed it
• Year 1 of first action plan complete
• Use national indicators as monitoring
framework

12. Any questions?

13. “Best buys” for mental health
•Supporting parents and early years: parenting skills training/pre-
school education/home learning environment
•Supporting lifelong learning: health promoting schools and
continuing education;
•Improving working lives: employment/workplace;
•Positive steps for mental health: lifestyle (diet, exercise, alcohol) and
social support;
•Supporting communities: environmental improvements
Parsonage M & Friedli L: Promoting mental health and preventing mental illness: the economic case for investment in
Wales, 2009

14. Examples of activity in action plan
• Well established programme/resources for IMH (programmes for
vulnerable families)
• Ongoing series of seminars for early years workforce
• Support for schools (incl parents)and Ayrshire college:
resources/events/whole establishment approaches eg to bullying
• Healthy workplace team focus on mental wellbeing for staff and
managers/early intervention
• Support employability programmes in the NHS
• Wide range of strategies for general health improvement, with
support eg Fresh Airshire/ABIs
• AHEAD asset based community project
• Social prescribing by Community Connectors in 3 HSCPs

15. Challenges
• Enormous agenda/little resource
• Too diffuse to be meaningful?
• Lots of people making contributions; does it
matter if they know?
• Workers are afraid of “doing harm”
• Wider social and economic context mean we are
running to stand still
• BUT
• It’s not expensive and small things can make a big
difference 