Most mental health services are provided in primary care. The National NIMHE Primary Care Programme sees primary care as the corner stone of a network of interrelated developments reflecting the whole service user journey. This will be achieved through the promotion of new ways of working and new workers including Graduate Primary Care Mental Health Workers and Gateway Workers.

The NIMHE Eastern Primary Care Programme aims to help practitioners and services improve the standard and consistency of services. Specifically the programme aims to:

• help practitioners to understand the fundamental principles of primary mental health care
• facilitate and encourage innovative practice
• increase the resources available for primary care
• offer hands on support for service improvement
• support the delivery of choice in mental health services through developments in primary care

Key Activities:

• Multi-professional training through Trailblazers and Teach the Teachers
  These programmes promote education and development relevant to primary care and tailored to the experience and expertise of the learner. The programme is run twice yearly and has been externally evaluated.
• Trailblazers and Teach the Teachers courses
  Local support to initiatives which highlight primary care developments, service redesign and cross professional development of integrated services
• A network of primary care support education groups
• Opportunities to share the experiences of service re-design and to participate in local and national pilot sites on new role development in service provision
• Active links with the National Primary Care Programme Board and the National Executive Board for primary care
• A regional programme which supports the implementation of experienced mental health professionals to manage the interface between primary and secondary care, assess and triage clients to create effective access and supervise Graduate Primary Care Mental Health Workers
• An accelerated development programme to support implementation of new Support, Time and Recovery Worker (STR) roles to work directly with service users, working across boundaries of care, organisations and roles to provide practical support, give time and aid recovery

Key Contacts:

Ray Baird, Advisor for Primary Care

Debbie Marr, Programme Administrator