Nicholas Bannister is a Hospital Liaison Recovery Co-ordinator with over 13 years’ experience in working with people with drug and/or alcohol misuse issues.
Over the last year he has been working two days a week at Dorothy Pattison hospital and two days a week at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, as part of the implementation of a hospital dual diagnosis pathway supporting those who have both mental health issues and drug and alcohol needs.
The aim of the pathway, which was supported by Walsall Together and run in collaboration with Change Grow Live (CGL), Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and Walsall Council Public Health, was to look at how the co-ordination of care could be improved for these individuals to ensure they have fair access to the most appropriate services.
Here Nick tells us more about the role and the impact it is having:
“I see so many examples of people who go to A&E who are experiencing both mental health and substance misuse issues at the same time. This is difficult as substance misuse might worsen mental health symptoms, and untreated mental health issues can make it harder for someone to stay sober or drug free. Sadly, quite often they don’t get the holistic help and support they need which is where the dual diagnosis programme and my role comes in.
“For two days a week I am based at Dorothy Pattison Hospital (DPH) working on a weekly one-to-one basis with those have been referred for a mental health issue but also have drug or alcohol issues. This gives me the time to really connect with them and work with them to get to the root cause of what leads to their substance misuse. For most it is down to stresses in their life like money or relationship worries which impacts on their mental health. I work with them to help them identify what their trigger is and what coping mechanisms and tools they can use to try and help themselves deal with these stressful situations.
“Making sure they have the support they need in the community once they leave is key. One individual I was supporting over several months didn’t have anywhere to live, hadn’t got any support in the community and lacked trust in health and social care services. Working with the multi-disciplinary teams including housing, social workers and community mental health teams we managed to get them somewhere to live and I allocated them a key link worker and organised their first appointment, so they were not waiting long to be seen once they left. I’m really pleased to say that this person is doing well now thanks to this joined up working.”
On the other two days a week Nicholas supports the discharge of patients from Walsall Manor who don’t need a hospital stay but need that same community support.
“I definitely think this role has had a really positive impact on the experiences of service users by looking at the whole picture, making it more seamless and improving the levels of communication so they feel fully supported and know who to turn to if they need help.”
A lot of the initial work involved the staff across the partnership understanding each other’s roles and responsibilities and looking for ways to better work together. The pathway is now fully established, and Nick’s role remains in place until at least March 2025 while lesson learnt, and future funding options are considered.
Early indications show there has been a positive impact with feedback from service users including one who said: “Please keep coming here to help people like me because you do such an amazing job. You have helped me so much and have been there and are still here for so many people. Thank you so much it’s hard to put into words how much your help means to me.”
In his spare time Nick is a keen gym goer and runner having completed 10 marathons and over 100 half marathons to date. He also likes to go to music gigs and to watch the football.
