The Oxford AHSN Clinical Networks’ annual Mental Health Meeting provided an opportunity to hear about the work of our mental health-related networks.
More than 60 people from across the Oxford AHSN region attended on 2 June 2015, including local patients and representatives from trusts, clinical commissioning groups, higher education institutes and voluntary and community organisations.
Prof Michael Sharpe, Psychiatrist of the Year and Strategic Lead for our Physical/Mental Comorbidity Network, gave the keynote speech calling for parity between mental and physical health which set the tone for an interesting and varied afternoon of talks.
There were updates from all of our mental health-related clinical networks – Anxiety and Depression, Dementia, Early Intervention in Mental Health and Physical/Mental Comorbidity – and our partners at the regional Strategic Clinical Network to showcase work carried out in the past 12 months and to share future plans.
Following talks from the Oxfordshire charity Restore and the Oxford AHSN Wealth Creation and Clinical Innovation Adoption teams, delegates participated in a short workshop session to discuss current and future projects.
Dr Sarah Marriott, Divisional Medical Director & Consultant Psychiatrist at Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, who chaired one of the sessions, said: “Much enjoyed it and look forward to remaining involved. Thank you – clearly a lot of effort went into what felt like a very successful afternoon!”
Some more feedback from the event:
- “Very good presentations: well prepared & delivered. Achieved comprehensive review of the work done by the networks”
- “Informative, knowing who is who and doing what”
- “Refreshing, exciting and motivating”
Thanks to everyone who attended and provided feedback on the event – most was really positive and all will be used to make the event even better next year.