Accessing community mental health support: tell us your views

Overview

What is your experience of trying to get community mental health support in East Sussex for yourself or someone else? If you’ve tried to access community support in the last six months, then we’d value your feedback.

Background

Community mental health covers everything apart from inpatient services provided at hospital. It includes services offered by Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust (who are the lead provider of NHS mental health care and treatment across Sussex), some GP services and local charitable and voluntary organisations.

We are working to transform community mental health services locally. The key principles of this work are to bring services together to provide support which is:

• personalised and complete,
• simple and seamless,
• accessible and inclusive, and
• delivered by one team.

You can read more about this work on the Sussex Health & Care website.

Why your views matter

This survey is about accessing support, such as where people go when they need help, the support they are offered, and how well it worked for them. It will help us to understand people's current experiences. Your views will help us to understand what is working well, and what we need to change to ensure people can get the mental health support they need.  

Who can take part?

We want to hear from people with lived experience of accessing local mental health services for themselves or for others. This includes services provided by voluntary and community organisations, GP surgeries, specialist mental health, and adult social care.

There are some groups that we hear from less often, and we’re keen for them to take part in this survey. We’d particularly welcome hearing from:  

• people experiencing mental health challenges alongside difficulties relating to drugs and/or alcohol,
• older people,
• people living in the Rye/Camber area,
• people from minority ethnic and refugee groups, and
• members of the LGBTQI+ community.

How do I take part?

The survey closes on 18 October 2024. It should take around 15 minutes to complete. You have the option to use the ‘Save and come back later…’ button at the end of each page if you need more time to finish later.

Please get in touch if you have any questions about the survey, or would like it posted to you or provided in an alternative format such as large print, on coloured paper, or in another language. You can also get in touch if you need help to take part, or prefer to provide feedback via email or over the phone.

If you are completing a paper copy of the survey, please return it to Community Mental Health survey, North A Floor, County Hall, St Anne's Crescent, Lewes, BN7 1UE.

What happens next?

The results of the survey will be analysed by East Sussex County Council and NHS Sussex. Findings will then be presented to a multi-agency group of health professionals responsible for making improvements to local mental health services. We’ll share the results and what we plan to do on this webpage.

Privacy information: This survey is anonymous, and we don't ask you to provide any personal information in it. Please ensure that any comments you make don't include any names or personal details of you or anyone else. You can find our privacy notice about how the data will be stored and processed by East Sussex County Council on our website.