The Cheshire and Merseyside, Perinatal Mental Health, Lead Provider Collaborative ‘Helix’ went live Monday 1 April 2024.
Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust are the lead provider in the collaborative, working closely with Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, who play a crucial role as a pathway partner.
Developing the identity
The name Helix, developed by Experts by Experience, represents natural beauty, often seen in the spiralling structures of DNA, shells, and galaxies. It represents a blend of simplicity and complexity, symbolising growth and evolution.
Helix is a sign of resilience because its structure symbolises continuous progression and adaptation. Just as a helix spirals upward, it reflects the journey of overcoming challenges, learning from experiences, and emerging stronger.
Jenny Scott, Associate Director of Commissioning, Lead Provider Collaboratives, said: "The name Helix, chosen by our Experts by Experience, embodies our mission to enhance and deliver comprehensive and accessible perinatal mental health support across Cheshire and Merseyside.
"Working with Experts by Experience and using their insights, we aim to identify and dismantle barriers to care, ensuring timely and effective support. Their voice will be central to our efforts, guiding us every step of the way.
“We are excited about the opportunity to improve perinatal mental health services, working closely with our partners to make Helix a beacon of positive change.”
NHS-Led Provider Collaboratives mark a new era for specialised mental health, building on the success of New Care Models for tertiary mental health services. NHS-Led Provider Collaboratives will deliver care closer to home, invest in community services and drive improvements in patient outcomes and experience.
NHS-Led Provider Collaboratives are a new way of planning and providing specialist mental health, learning disability and autism services.
The Provider Collaboratives aim to change the way services are provided with different organisations working closely together. This means that services will be provided closer to home and as much as possible out of hospital.
The Lead Provider, in this case Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, is working with other providers to make improvements to local specialist services for people and their families.
The Provider Collaborative is working with people who use these services as well as people who deliver these services to plan what needs to change in the future.
There are key principles which underpin the Provider Collaborative model:
- Experts by experience and clinicians leading improvements in care pathways
- Collaboration between Providers and across local systems
- Managing resources across the collaborative to make sure that money is spent on support for people at or close to home and help make sure that people don’t go into hospital when they don’t need to.
- Working with people and groups locally, including people from the voluntary and community sectors.
- Improvements in quality, patient experience and patient outcomes driving change
The ambition of NHS-Led Provider Collaboratives is to ensure that people with a mental health need who need care experience high quality, specialist care as close to home as appropriately possible and that care is connected to their community.
Provider Collaboratives are aiming to invest in specialist care in the community to help reduce hospital admissions, unless necessary, and to enable people to leave hospital when they are ready.
If you would like to know more about Provider Collaboratives please watch the short video below by NHS England.