“Involving a patient’s family and friends as part of a new approach to mental health treatment makes it three times less likely they will be admitted to psychiatric hospital, research has found.
Patients rated their recovery and quality of life more highly than those who were treated in the traditional way, the study published in The Lancet Psychiatry, also found.”
Here is the link to the full BBC article of today 27/8/2026 Treatment involving patient’s family cuts mental health hospital admissions, study finds – BBC News
This finding is something that has been noted in the predecessor Whitby district Men’s Sheds and in particular Norton Shed this past few years. In Whitby district there was little mixed professional and Shed support of men with mental health/wellbeing impacts.
Norton started with “pressure” from the sole Social Prescribing Link Worker who needed something distracting for men. Regular readers know there was only one Link Worker at the start (easy communication!) but now that Link Worker heads up a team of a dozen or more others. We spent 5 years getting to know each other (which means trust and mutual listening ears) even when both parties are busy with their own domains of activity.
That has also grown with Macmillan Cancer Support NE this past 2 years.
Working together, day to day and on innovative wellbeing approaches, is quite normal (if not instant given working pressures).
WE KNEW that working together with professionals worked to the benefit of men at the Shed who themselves were involved as a “Shed family”.
WHAT WE DIDN’T KNOW was any measure of how much it can help people to have active mixed support for individuals. Combining clinical with wellbeing (which is what many Sheds are consciously about).
Just this morning we have received a message from a Shedder’s spouse carer that he will not be at the Shed because of a home visit from a social worker. Spouse wrote, “We will miss your friendly ‘Shed guys’. Please say hello from us 🙂”.
All this feeds into what the government is intent on within the evolving embryo Neighbourhood Health programme. Important, because trust can only be created over time and slowly building experience of what is a whole new way of working for the NHS.
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After publishing this blog yesterday morning, we had a surprise visit from NHS Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys (TEWV) mental health trust (a lead worker, a trainee and a prospective Shedder). They have popped by a couple of times over the last year or two.
We don’t usually react instantly to surprises (we have to think of existing Shedders). Two things caused us to react positively to the young man,
1. The way the conversations went with all 3 people who came, including the young man. He answered a test question! Who do you think can help you most? His answer was “Me!”. The workers may have been working on that realisation, but it came out genuinely from him.
2. We are a Shed committed to being forward thinking and a bit of a test bench for ideas. The visit certainly revealed the potential for exploring collaboration directly with an NHS mental health service. It was a specialist team committed to working with individuals in a very flexible way. A very tailored service that was not a crisis response. It reminded very much of our relationship at our start with the local NHS Social Prescribing Link Workers. Who knows what might happen for us and TEWV by a trial of extending our existing trust partnerships. Something that most of our Shedders would likely be comfortable with as a guinea pig trial!
We were impressed with the workers’ readiness to collaborate and support to make the trial successful. Again, key is that the man is committed to benefitting from a new opportunity that he puts effort into and to relate as best he can with other Shedders.
So, we see now, how relationships might develop.
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Then, this morning a BBC report again in the blue link below.
The headline is:
“Autism and ADHD care is at risk of descending into chaos, NHS bosses are warning, as costs spiral out of control and unregulated private providers capitalise on the huge demand for help.
The NHS Alliance, which represents health managers, says the current system represents a “bad deal” for patients and taxpayers alike.
It points to big variations in what the NHS is being charged for assessments and care – in one case, a local health board was paying £300 to £3,000 for similar services.”
The costs of even diagnosing ADHD and Autism are spiralling. What about the costs of then helping those diagnosed?
Norton Men’s Shed can only touch 0.001% of the problem, where that is not a precise figure!! It’s more a message. The trial would be really to show what might be able to be done by another very relevant part of the NHS with us. Volunteer run projects in the VCFSE sector we believe can at least contribute to the atmosphere of services provided by the Big NHS through on the ground involvement between workforces aimed at individual people.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy4zgpynwdjo
Well, on Friday morning there was another visitor that fits the ongoing pattern. From Stockton BC STEPS support programme with another prospective Shedder. A man who has been isolated somewhat for about 5 years, he says. He reached out to STEPS eventually and with a bit of arranging he arrived today with what is effectively an SBC support worker equivalent to an NHS Primary Care Social Prescribing Link Worker.
[Oh for a map of the world of support from different sources in Stockton, using a national standard glossary of job titles!].
It proved to be a first class visit for the man, some of the Shedders who took him on a tour and shared time with him, and for the Support Worker & Graham. It was chaotic, as Shed life can be, but through it the SBC got a good feel for the Shed environment and its wellbeing strengths. The man said he missed the work banter he once enjoyed. He and the Support Worker, whether she liked it or not (she seemed to), had a few spadefuls!
There is certainly a feeling on our part that what has developed with our NHS Link Workers and Macmillan Cancer Support could easily be extended to include the NHS TEWV Mental Health Team and SBC STEPS. At grass roots level and trialling new ways of working together.
working together? Proving the merits of a cohesive path for people (in our case men) that bridges the authorities<>voluntary gap. One that hopefully can encourage many sectors to work together bringing their different strengths and capabilities.
As an example of this, our partners are those who filter people for what might help them and then introduce them to community groups. Introducing is the important step – not just providing a list of options for people to make their own arrangements to attend. Capacity in the VCFSE is an issue – we are not funded services with paid staff. But we do get encouragement.
What a week. Phew.
After thought > How about a dedicated Government Minister for the VCFSE sector that is resourced to promote trust relationships? One that also can engage Because volunteers do for free out of compassion. Research shows there is such a Minister, but it is part of a wider portfolio of responsibilities. Volunteering is huge (think of just family carers) and somebody to oversee understanding of small voluntary efforts (not just the big, national ones) in a main focus way could strengthen efforts across the board that are already embedded in corners of communities.