Joe's Blog
Chief Executive Officer Prof Joe Rafferty CBE writes his latest blog on innovation and the significant progress that is being made in mental health research at Mersey Care, nationally and internationally. You can read the full blog elsewhere on this website.
Our Services
Trish Bennett appointed Chief Executive Officer Designate
Trish Bennett has assumed the role as Chief Executive Officer Designate. As part of these transitional leadership arrangements, a small number of Board level roles have been appointed into an acting up basis, which came into effect at the start of this month:
- Lee Taylor, Acting Chief Delivery Officer
- Jenny Hurst, Acting Chief Nurse.
Work continues to reconfigure the leadership arrangements and we will keep you updated as this progresses. The updated contact details for the executive team, senior leaders and their respective executive assistants is available here.
The new structure, as of 1 August, is available here.
Prof Joe Rafferty will retire at the end of October and Trish will become the Chief Executive Officer on 1 November 2024.
Southport incident – support for those affected
The tragic incident in Southport on Monday, 29 July has had a big impact on the local community, across the region and nationally. We’ve worked with nearby partners to share the local support available, which can be found on Sefton Council’s website.
We’ve also got a range of our own support materials available on our website, including:
- Our newly updated mental health self help guides to download and keep
- Our 24/7 Urgent mental health support.
In the news – our Chronic Pain community team
Dr Chris Barker, our Clinical Director in Pain Management, was interviewed by BBC Radio Four’s prestigious ‘Today’ programme where he discussed how chronic pain is treated in the community. You can listen to the full interview below and more information about our service can be found on their specialist webpage.
How our BABS team is helping families with mental health and wellbeing
Our Building Attachment and Bonds service (BABS) supports mums, dads, carers and infants with their mental health and emotional wellbeing. To help and build happy, secure and loving relationships with their babies.
Sessions are offered to families either in the family home or in the community. During June two Adverse Childhood Experience groups were held, find out more on our website.
Children and Young People’s summer ‘catch up’ clinics
Mersey Care has announced a series of clinics across the region to allow parents and carers to ensure all immunisations are up to date (see image below). More information can found on our website.
Long COVID service develops app to help patients
Our Long COVID service has developed content for an online app to help speed up the recovery of patients suffering from the effects of the debilitating condition.
Working in partnership with Physitrack, the Long COVID service has filmed a series of breathing, movement and mindfulness videos that have been uploaded to the app, known as PhysiApp, allowing patients to see therapists performing the movements and techniques demonstrated in clinic.
The team can remotely monitor their patients’ activity via the new dashboard as they work through their tailored plan, which also allows them to comment on how they feel whilst participating in the movement and techniques. More information can be found on our website.
New hospital poised to end mental health dormitory wards in Liverpool
Senior Trust officials gathered with construction partners to mark the 'Topping Out' ceremony for a new state of the art 80 bed hospital, which will end mental health dormitory wards in Liverpool.
Trish Bennett was joined by Director of Finance, Rob Collins and Director of Mental Health Care Division, Donna Robinson for the traditional builders' ceremony which marks the final beam being laid during a construction. A video of the ceremony can be seen below:
They also met representatives of construction partners for a tour of the new build on the site of the old Mossley Hill Hospital, which is expected to open in the summer of 2025. More information is available on our website.
Changes to mental health emergency and urgent referrals
We have changed the way mental health emergency and urgent referrals are received from GPs in St Helens, Knowsley, Warrington and Halton. In the event of an emergency referral (up to four hours), very urgent referral (up to 24 hours), or urgent response (up to 72 hours), please contact our First Response Service on 0800 145 6570 and press option 1. The team will log referral information and transfer to the most appropriate person for action.
As part of national transformation to reduce and simplify points of access into mental health services, emergency and urgent referrals will not be accepted in paper format to former email addresses/teams.
Non urgent referrals can be made by completing a bio-psychosocial referral form and emailing:
- Halton: mcn-tr
.recoveryhalton @nhs.net - Warrington: mcn-tr
.recovery-pcnreferrals @nhs.net - Knowsley: knowsMHhub
@merseycare.nhs.net - St Helens: mcn-tr
.sthmentalhealthroutinereferrals @nhs.net
GPs or primary care network ARRS mental health practitioners can refer for non-urgent secondary care assessments and formulation and intervention offers. This is to support achievement of service users’ personal goals, where attempts to support them in primary care are not appropriate or have been unsuccessful. Referrers will be informed of outcome/actions from the multidisciplinary team and subsequent routine assessment.
Primary care network colleagues are available to support GPs with criteria for referrals to make sure they reach the appropriate team and ensure correct response times are achieved.
Our Achievements
NHS Big Tea 2024 raises over £1,800 for Mersey Cares
A big thanks to our fundraisers for raising over £1,800 with hosted bake-off competitions, raffles and games, to support our services during the NHS Big Tea parties across Cheshire and Merseyside last month.
The event celebrated 76 years of the NHS and also raised important funds for exciting initiatives across the Trust. We'd like to say a huge thank you to all who took part and donated and invite you to look at our NHS Big Tea photo compilation
Michael joins the Sky High Club for Mersey Cares charity
Following multiple bad weather postponements, Corporate Business Manager, Michael Rout finally completed his Mersey Cares sky dive, raising an incredible £945 for our charity. He was the fourth staff member to complete the challenge this year, with more than £2,000 raised overall.
“I’m grateful to everyone who sponsored me to do this, without their generosity I wouldn’t have dared do something this daft,” said a relieved Michael after completing the challenge. Further information about the sky dives can be found on the Mersey Cares website.
Our Research
M-RIC launches new co-production video
The Mental Health Research for Innovation Centre (M-RIC), a partnership between Mersey Care and the University of Liverpool, has launched a new video to explain the vital role service users, carers and the wider public are playing in informing and shaping their groundbreaking work to improve mental health services and treatments.
M-RIC’s Lead Investigator, Prof Rhiannon Corcoran and Prof Zara Quigg from Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) are also leading a new Liverpool City Region ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) Alliance.
Pictured above (left to right): Prof Zara Quigg, Prof Rhiannon Corcoran and Katharine Abba, an M-RIC Research Fellow, at the ACEs conference in Liverpool.
This will form part of M-RIC’s work on improving population mental health. Read more about this initiative on their webpage.
Funding for researchers to evaluate and improve support for Liverpool City Region households
Researchers at the University of Liverpool have received a share of £9.7 million new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funding for projects aimed at ensuring everyone in the UK has a path to economic success and personal wellbeing, regardless of where they live.
Findings will contribute to the ongoing research by M-RIC on improving population mental health in Liverpool City Region and the work by the Heseltine Institute for Public Policy, Practice and Place on public service reform. More information is available on the University of Liverpool website.
National experts on mental health research co-production visit M-RIC
Senior representatives from the national Mental Health Mission and charity MQ Mental Health Research recently visited Liverpool to visit M-RIC so they could see our fresh approach to co-production. More information is on the M-RIC website.
Pictured above: Mental Health Mission Patient and Public Involvement, Engagement and Participation Lead, Lesley Booth and MQ Mental Health Research Director of Research Partnerships and Development, Emily Wheeler with the M-RIC team and some of our service user and carer representatives.
Get Involved
Why not get involved in one of the many Mersey Cares events?
Are you looking for a new challenge? Why not join us for one of the many events in our calendar and raise important funds for our services?
We’ve updated our Mersey Cares fundraising events portfolio including shorter 5k distances which are great for a range of fitness levels. The BTR Winter series includes three challenges which can be undertaken as a trio or as individual events and include ‘Autumn Leaves 5k’, ‘Bonfire Blast 5k’ and ‘Winter’s Tale 5k’.
We add to our programme of events all the time with a range of challenges including running events and walking challenges to skydives, abseils and even an annual Santa dash. Find out more and register
Register your interest in Mersey Care’s Annual General Meeting
The Trust’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) will take place on Wednesday, 25 September 2024. It will be held at Aintree Racecourse in the Golden Miller Suite between 1.30pm and 3pm.
The AGM provides an opportunity to find out more about the Trust and also review some of our highlights and performance from over the last 12 months. More information about the event and how to register can be found on our website.
New qualification in HOPE(S) model of care
A new course, leading to a Diploma in Practice Leadership in the HOPE(S) model of care to reduce long term segregation, has been launched by the Restraint Reduction Network in collaboration with our Trust.
We’re a national leader on restraint reduction and reducing long term segregation in NHS commissioned care and we’re commissioned by NHS England to deliver the HOPE(S) model of care across the country.
Our staff, in collaboration with people with lived experience, developed the model and now provide training both nationally and to major international partners. The course starts in September and will be delivered by the UK’s Restraint Reduction Network, it’s open to those working across care settings and more details can be found on our website.
MC Magazine - out now!
Out now: MC Magazine’s summer issue featuring:
- Schizophrenia - an expert asks why are we scared?
- It seems yoga is better for men and weights for women - are we getting exercise all wrong?
- Met the young people bonding with skunks and millipedes
- Dip into the world of wild swimming and hear inspiring success stories from Mersey Care’s Pain Management Clinic.
Join our stakeholder news mailing list
Do you know someone who wants to learn more about Mersey Care by joining our stakeholder mailing list? Please ask them to fill in the form on our website and they’ll be the first to hear all our news.