Gary Newton, Head of Contracts, Delivery and Collaboration: Open Mental Health VCSE Alliance shares his reflections on a busy year at Open Mental Health in Somerset.
It’s an absolute pleasure to be asked to author an end-of-year Open Mental Health message for 2023. I can’t believe I’ve been in post for over a year, and what a year it’s been.
In the blink of an eye and as 2023 draws to a close, I find myself reflecting on my first day joining the alliance on the 14th of November 2022. That quickly became a rapid journey of learning, developing new relationships, and amazement over the diversity, passion and warmth of welcome right across the Open Mental Health (OMH) partnership.
I quickly became aware of conversations suggesting our OMH approach was innovative, offered added value, was person-centred and delivered a positive solution based can-do attitude. Well, I can truly say that I have seen that in bucket loads, and it is down to each and every one delivering and supporting our clients in the way that we do—and for that, I would like to say thank you.
I’ve often heard, and cited myself on several occasions, that OMH is greater than the sum of its parts. I’ve also spoken about its “culture” and how difficult it is to define—but for anyone who was fortunate enough to have been present at the inaugural OMH “Together Conference”, I hope you will agree that one day in July was the epitome of our OMH culture.
We have something special here in Somerset. Something that bravely pushed the restrictions of Covid aside during its initial mobilisation in 2020 and which has grown and gone from strength to strength. Our range of service delivery has grown, the number of VCFSE Alliance contracts outside of our core OMH contract has increased—adding to the longer-term financial sustainability of the alliance, and of course, we can’t ignore the fantastic achievement and recent news of being awarded a new contract for a further 5 years which commences in April 2024.
I have had the privilege of travelling across the county over the past year, visiting sites and services and meeting many of you in person. For those that I haven’t met, I look forward to seeing you at next year’s “Together Conference – part 2” but in the meantime I remain in awe of the energy, focus, and drive that you all continue to deliver to make a positive difference to everyone experiencing mental health challenges in Somerset.
I referenced “culture” earlier and still find it hard to describe to people what I actually mean by that in the context of OMH. For me, it’s wanting to be in this space, waking every day knowing that we can make a positive difference to at least one person in that day – it’s the experience that runs as a golden thread through OMH and for me can best be summed up by our VCFSE shared values; Inclusivity – Courage – Resilience – Trust – Compassion – Empowerment and unfaltering energy to drive positive change through the heart of MH services—it makes me proud to be part of OMH.
OMH VCFSE alliance will be producing, for the first time, a Reflections, Achievements and Impact report for 2023, which will be published in the new year. I hope that you can find time to review it and take pride in the knowledge that the achievements and positive impacts delivered couldn’t have happened if it weren’t for all of our OMH VCFSE alliance partners, staff members, expert by experience leaders, volunteers and our wider Open Mental Health partners within Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, the ICB and Somerset Council. Support of the VCFSE sector by our statutory colleagues has never felt stronger, and we all continue to learn from each other.
Thank you for everything you do, and may you have a wonderful festive break.