NHFT and LPT buddy up to pledge our commitment to equal health
Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT) and its buddy trust, Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, have signed the Equally Well Charter for Equal Health, as our commitment to ensuring that patients with long term mental health conditions have access to high quality help and support for their physical health.
Crishni Waring, Chair of NHFT, signed the Equally Well Charter for Equal Health on Thursday 3 September at a virtual meeting of the Board.
Leicestershire Partnership Trust (LPT) and NHFT are working in partnership to share best practice and ensure our services continue to meet the needs of our local communities. Cathy Ellis, Chair of LPT, pledged the Trust’s commitment to Equally Well signing the charter at the board meeting on Tuesday 1 September.
NHFT provides a range of high quality and innovative mental health services for adults and children across Northamptonshire and is committed to delivering outstanding and compassionate care. The Trust is continually working with its service users, patients, staff and visitors to review the services it provides, using lived experiences to develop its care provision.
Equally Well UK is asking all health service providers and commissioners, organisations which provide mental health services, or work with people experiencing mental health illness to work with them to sign the charter and reduce the physical health inequalities for people with severe mental illness.
NHFT and LPT share Equally Well UK’s vision to ensure that everyone living with a long-term mental health condition has access to effective, timely, consistent and responsive help at every stage of their life for their physical health and has an equal chance of enjoying a healthy and, ultimately, equal life expectancy.
Crishni Waring, Chair of NHFT, said: “We are dedicated to providing outstanding and compassionate care for our service users and patients, and by pledging our commitment to the Equally Well Charter for equal health, we will take another step forward to ensuring our services continue to evolve and meet the needs of our communities.
“We will strive to ensure that our services are accessible to anyone experiencing mental health problems. Our colleagues will continue to work with service users to improve their physical wellbeing and to prevent, treat and manage physical health problems, creating individual care plans to their needs.”
Emma Bailey, Project Manager for Equally Well UK, added: “We are delighted to have Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust and Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust join our growing membership of organisations all pledging to improve the physical health care for people with a severe mental illness.”
To find out more about Equally Well visit: www.equallywell.co.uk