We were asked to carry out a community asset mapping exercise to identify the multitude of services within the Trust geography for low level mental health, specifically Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT). This included a high level review of the referral pathway and developing an interactive map to understand access to low-level mental health services in Berkshire across the socio-economic landscape.
Objective
Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust needed to understand if people with low-level mental health conditions from different socio-economic groups receive appropriate care in Berkshire.
What we did
- Project management and coordination - including liaison with key stakeholders across system.
- Asset mapping - key voluntary and community providers, mental health roles in Primary Care Networks (PCNs)
- An online interactive mapping solution with multiple data sources and layers including: providers/service locations, contextual datasets (ethnicity, deprivation, population density, age profiles), travel analysis, referral pathways, interactive web applications and static mapping outputs.
- Review of current service offer and referral pathway
The interactive, online map of Berkshire shows where low-level mental health services are located within the region’s six local authority areas, together with the home area of patients using these services and was presented to key stakeholders across the patch.
In the map, the user can interact with the data, using filters to drill down, understanding more about the patients accessing the services. The information shown can reveal the patient’s referral pathway, whether patients are living in a deprived area, employment status, and whether they have a disability. Multiple ‘layers’ of data can be viewed at the same time; for example, Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust specifically wanted to understand health inequalities in the region, so they inspected the referrals from different pathways to see which came from the most deprived areas.
The map can also be used to understand how each service is reached by different modes of transport – e.g. public transport, driving and walking – to gather further knowledge on people’s experiences when travelling to the services.
The data used in this tool comes from Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) and shows historical referrals between 2019 and 2022. Other socio-demographic datasets come from the 2021 census.
Activity
Geospatial services
Data-driven decision-making
Planning and modelling
Mental health
Outcome
Alongside the clinical review and asset mapping, this easy-to-use map enabled Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust to make data-driven decisions to optimise low-level mental health services in Berkshire. Although not yet fully realised, the benefits of this work will result in improved patient care and contribute to an overall better functioning system at the trust.
