3 minute read
MC Magazine Autumn 2024
Top to Toe
Mersey Care’s retiring Chief Executive Officer, Joe Rafferty reflects on a journey of growth and transformation, innovations and people.
“Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, gave one of my favourite quotes about leadership and teamwork, saying “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do – we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.
That’s certainly been the case here at Mersey Care where talented people who embrace a mindset and culture of kindness and continuous improvement are always asking ‘how can we do things better?’
This expertise has helped us transform from a medium sized mental health organisation into one of the most diverse health care providers in the North West. We’ve continuously improved services despite obstacles and financial challenges.
One of our first innovations was to develop the expertise of our service users to work in partnership with our clinicians to improve services. I was always impressed at the idea of doctor and patient sitting down, talking and working together. We now benefit from their lived experience and our army of more than 100 volunteers gain opportunities, training and qualifications.
We were the first NHS Trust to introduce a Just and Learning Culture, where staff feel supported and empowered to learn when
things do not go as expected, rather than feeling blamed. It’s a culture that instinctively asks in the case of an adverse event: “what was responsible, not who is responsible”. Doing this will ensure our daily practice, our conduct and our dealings with colleagues is honest, kind and willing to learn.
When I joined, our chairman, Beatrice Fraenkel had a clear vision for a new mental health hospital for the people of Liverpool. She wanted to combine a therapeutic environment with cutting edge design - a world away from old rundown buildings previously associated with mental health care.
We now build state of the art mental health hospitals that tell our patients their recovery is as important as anyone else’s.
We knew from our service users that preventing poor mental health meant tackling poor housing, helping people find employment and reducing social isolation. People told us they needed somewhere to go for support and to meet others struggling to overcome similar challenges.
We developed The Life Rooms, where people were prescribed courses, activities and social groups. It was ahead of its time and since Walton - the first of four Life Rooms - opened in 2016, more than 16,000 social prescriptions have been issued, alongside advice on housing, debt and employment issues.
We’ve developed new models in mental health care and the Mental Health Research for Innovation Centre (M-RIC), a partnership with the University of Liverpool will make sure we remain at the forefront of mental health research for years to come.
The services we offer today mean we can truly care for our communities from head to toe. I have every confidence that will carry on.
Take good care of yourself and each other.
Professor Joe Rafferty CBE
