Issue - items at meetings - Dual Diagnosis

85.1    Linda Harrington, Commissioning Manager, NHS Brighton & Hove City, and Kathy Caley, Lead Commissioner for Alcohol & Substance Misuse, presented a joint report and update on the dual diagnosis work.

85.2    Ms Harrington said that the work was in the context of the Overview and Scrutiny panel report in 2009 that looked at services for people with a dual diagnosis. The scrutiny panel recommended a joint strategic needs assessment was carried out; this was completed in 2012. Other updates included introducing a universal screening tool, new accommodation services and greater service integration.

85.3    Ms Caley said that the alcohol and substance misuse services were currently in the process of being retendered; at present they were consulting with service users to see what they would want to see in the service.

85.4    Ms Harrington and Ms Caley then answered members’ comments and questions.

85.5    Mr Watkins said that he had been on the scrutiny panel that had looked at dual diagnosis in 2009. It had been a very harrowing process and they had heard from service users who had had a terrible experience. Mr Watkins found it unbelievable that four years on from the panel, the recommendations had still not been carried out. It was very sad that those people who needed specialist services were still not able to access them. He anticipated that Healthwatch would want to look at dual diagnosis when it was operating.

Ms Caley said that she fully appreciated Mr Watkins’ comments but it was the case that a range of work had already been carried out. Sussex Partnership Trust had taken the dual diagnosis workstream forward, dual diagnosis champions were now in place and training was in place for more generic staff. However it was true that there was still a lot of work that needed to be completed.

Ms Harrington added that this was the second update on dual diagnosis, so they had not included all of the updates that had happened since 2009. Another positive change was an increase in bed spaces at the West Pier Project. However there was a recognition that services still needed to be more integrated.

85.6    Members asked for more information about the new accommodation provision. They heard that there were different levels of accommodation support, with a specific focus on dual diagnosis at every level.

85.7    Members thanked Ms Harrington and Ms Caley for their presentation and looked forward to being kept informed of developments in service provision.