Early support brings success against stress
(International Stress Awareness Week – 4th to 8th November 2019)
Merthyr & the Valleys Mind, as the trusted mental health charity in the region, have been delivering an Active Monitoring service to GP Practices over the last two years. This service provides early intervention support to patients showing early signs of mental health problems, including stress and anxiety, bringing down GP waiting times, preventing future demand on wider health service, and supporting patients at a point before they may need medication or longer-term intervention.
Merthyr & the Valleys Mind want to highlight the success of this service, which is a guided self-help programme using a CBT approach, as it has already proved to have benefitted the majority of those that have used the programme.
During International Stress Awareness Week it is important that people are aware of the importance of acknowledging stress at an early stage and to know that there are tools and services available to help them manage any problems and to stop them developing into something that will impact their lives more.
One of the patients that received Active Monitoring support through this programme said:
“I have improved my symptoms of stress, anxiety and anger and I am confident I will continue to improve as I have a better understanding of what can help me. This service has helped me 100% and I am so glad to have been given the opportunity to attend.” (Ynysybwl)
The importance of early intervention and prevention is key to the work the Government and the Minister of Health and Social Services are focussing on, Vaughan Gething said:
“We all need to be aware of early warnings of stress and anxiety and knowing there are support services, such as Active Monitoring, on the ground should help us seek the help we need. Early intervention and prevention not only relieves pressure on health services; more importantly it gives people back their lives.”
The benefits of Active Monitoring outweigh any costs, for example over two years in only one cluster of surgeries (with 1,504 patients taking part in the programme) over £12m of benefits to their wellbeing alone. Wellbeing Valuation is the latest thinking in social impact measurement, it allows you to measure the success of a social intervention by how much it increases people’s wellbeing (this is not including additional benefits recorded including less reliance on alcohol etc. or wider savings to society).
Merthyr & the Valleys Mind CEO, Julian John commented:
“We know the benefits our work and our programmes can bring to people, but we need more people to be aware of what services exist in their area. We want people to come forward and ask for help or guidance as soon as they start to feel any distress or any need for mental health support. We take an interest in the person behind the problem, and like many others, we are here to help!”
The theme of this year’s International Stress Awareness Week is Resilience: the power to succeed! Making people aware of the effects of psychological distress and of the many coping strategies and sources of help available to address it.
The call for this week is to reach out for help if you feel you need it or to reach out to those around you that may need help. Merthyr and the Valleys Mind and other support organisations there to help you, they exist for better mental health for all, making a difference through quality services delivered by knowledgeable, professional and qualified staff.