No matter what your background, we are working on short and long-term plans in partnership with others to make sure the care we develop and provide is smooth, thorough and tailored to you.

Here are some of the activities we are focusing on in the coming year:

• Recruiting more mental health professionals
• Improving the services for children, young people and expectant and new mothers and their partners
• Working with community-based services and healthcare practitioners who can provide care based on an someone’s need, close to their home
• Working with emergency care professionals so callers to NHS 111 who need mental health support get it straight away
• Making sure patients with dementia are diagnosed at an earlier stage so they can get relevant support from charities and groups
• Working with the criminal justice system to make sure those in custody are assessed by a mental health professional so they can receive help if they need it at an early stage

We have already made some big improvements, including working with the criminal justice system, reducing the number of patients placed outside of our area for care and developed new liaison services across south Essex.

We are continuing to work with our partners, including Essex Police, the Ambulance Service, local authorities and housing associations as we focus on our other priorities.

The NHS 111 service is now set up to help those needing urgent mental health services. When they call NHS 111, the healthcare adviser can request immediate specialist support after which the patient will be assessed over the telephone. If further support is needed the specialist can call for assistance straight away or make appointments for a face-to-face consultation the next day.

Our transformation plan Open Up. Reach Out for children and young people’s mental health is aimed at giving all children and young people the best possible support for their mental health and emotional wellbeing, offering more innovative services and consistent, high quality care, including on-line counselling provision, transition services and investment in crisis services.