About the Alliance
How we are working to make services more accessible to everyone across Devon
What is the Alliance?
The Devon Mental Health Alliance (DMHA) is a partnership of local organisations from the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector which aims to make mental health support and advice services across the county more accessible, more effective, and more suited to the needs of their users.
Our initial focus is on delivering the community component of Devon Partnership Trust and Livewell's implementation of the Community Mental Health Framework (CMHF) transformation programme, which has seen the Alliance commissioned to increase capacity for one-to-one and group interventions, and promote better system integration between community and statutory organisations. However, we’re already looking beyond this to identify further opportunities for the Alliance, in partnership with the wider VCSE sector, to promote the county’s mental health.
Four ‘footprints’ to reach all areas of Devon
The DMHA will coordinate its efforts across four areas, with each area led by different members of the Alliance.
Recovery Practice:
Northern area: Devon Mind
Eastern area: Step One Charity
Southern area: Step One Charity
Western area: Devon Mind
Community Development:
Northern area: CoLab Exeter
Eastern area: CoLab Exeter
Southern area: Shekinah
Western area: Improving Lives
Each area will have its own Local Area Team to lead on service delivery, evaluation, and improvement. These teams will each consist of the Alliance members above, alongside dedicated Recovery Practitioners and other partners.
Who is involved in the Alliance?
The DMHA is being led by six Devon-based organisations supporting people with mental health problems and concerns. Several dedicated roles will also be created as part of the Alliance, with recruitment planned to run throughout early 2022.
The Alliance is now in its mobilisation phase, meaning we’re focusing on recruitment and working with partners to understand how we can make the best possible contribution to the Devon’s mental health. This will be achieved through two areas of work:
Community Development
Each locality will have a dedicated lead organisation responsible for promoting the development of mental health support by:
building relationships within and across the statutory and VCSE sectors to improve access to mental health provision, with a particular focus on strengthening the role of VCSE partners;
facilitating training, learning, and developmental opportunities to improve capacity, including supporting organisations that do not formally deliver mental health interventions, but which nonetheless help improve people’s mental wellbeing;
identifying funding opportunities and new ways of working to fill gaps and address the specific needs of a particular locality; and
collecting data to enable impact evaluation and system learning.
Recovery Practitioners
The Alliance will recruit 20 FTE Recovery Practitioner positions across the county on a phased basis over the next 9 months.
These roles will deliver psychologically-informed interventions through one-to-one and group work, and act as a link to the wider community to ensure people have access to effective, local, and sustainable support.
They’ll also link with GPs, primary care networks, and mental health teams to help reduce waiting times and ensure that service users have access to the right support as their needs change.