WORCESTERSHIRE’S main provider of mental health services is inviting the county’s residents to help it shape some of its future services.

In April Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust will launch a new enhanced service to support people experiencing mental health problems to get help early.

It will be run by the trust’s Healthy Minds team and will include help to improve mental wellbeing through groups and courses run in the local community and through support from mental health professionals, which together will help people cope with things like anxiety, stress and worry.

Worcestershire Healthy Minds will support people to get the help they need early to try to prevent these types of issues becoming more serious. The idea is that this will reduce the demand on the trust’s community mental health teams and inpatient mental health wards which are part of a group of services known as secondary care.

The trust has been working with mental health commissioners who fund healthcare services and want money redirected from some secondary care to the development of the new Worcestershire Healthy Minds service.

Given the financial pressures in the NHS there is also a requirement that some secondary care services are re-designed to realise additional savings, while still offering high quality safe care to those who need it, when they need it.

While the trust is committed to maintaining support for those experiencing serious mental health problems, including during a crisis period, the current set up of the community mental health teams, and the three mental health wards which it runs, will need to change.

The trust wants to design the new service with patients, members of the public, staff and other interested parties and is inviting people to come together at a number of workshops where they can give their views about designing the services.

Mark Dickens, Adult Mental Health Lead for Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust, said: “We want to ensure that future services support vulnerable individuals when they need them most in the context of a reducing budget for secondary care mental health provision.

“Despite enhancing services to support people experiencing mental health problems to get help early, we recognise that help for people with more serious mental health problems remain and we want to engage with our communities, our current patients and our staff to design a new service which reassures people that this will be there when its needed.”

The workshops are on:

• Tuesday February 23 at 1.30pm at Kidderminster Town Hall, Vicar Street, Kidderminster, DY10 1DB

• Thursday February 25 at 1.30pm at Redditch Town Hall, Walter Stranz Square, Redditch, B98 8AH

• Monday February 29 at 1.30pm at St Peter’s Baptist Church, Eden Close, Worcester, WR5 3TZ

The feedback from these events will then be discussed at a final session where a new design for the service will be developed and proposed. Those who attended any of the above will be invited to this session on:

• Tuesday March 8 at 1.30pm at Warndon Hall Room 1, Shap Drive, Worcester, WR4 9NX

People must book in advance to attend the workshops as places will be allocated on a first come, first serve basis. To reserve a place please email WHCNHS.communications@nhs.net or call 01905 760222. Anyone unable to attend who would like to participate can complete a questionnaire online at www.hacw.nhs.uk/mentalhealthredesign from Tuesday February 23.

Alternatively people can telephone to give their views on the following numbers 01905 733827, 01905 760222 or 01905 760020 during normal office hours.