Evaluation of the Mental Health Navigator Scheme
This research study was led by Dr Sarah Blower at the University of York. It was a collaboration between NIHR ARC Yorkshire and Humber, NIHR ARC North East and North Cumbria, and NIHR ARC Greater Manchester.
What were we trying to do?
The Mental Health Navigator (MHN) scheme is a joint initiative between Wakefield District Housing (WDH) and a local commissioning group, which provides support to Wakefield-based tenants with mental health problems. In the scheme, trained mental health practitioners – the ‘navigators’ – provide support and early intervention to people experiencing housing problems.
A small-scale evaluation concluded that the scheme showed promise, and so further funding was secured to develop the evidence base and create materials that could be used to successfully implement the scheme in other parts of the UK.
The study had three main objectives:
- To establish what ‘real world’ evidence suggested regarding the impact of the WDH MHN scheme and to do a cost-consequence analysis.
- Explore existing and future service user, provider and stakeholder views of the how acceptable the scheme was and how feasible it was in practice.
- Combine the findings and ‘lessons learned’ to develop an implementation toolkit.
Why was this important?
Tenants with mental health problems can find maintaining tenancies challenging, which can lead to homelessness or housing instability and this, in turn, can make mental health issues worse. So, providing support to tenants with mental health problems is important because it helps them remain in stable housing, which is beneficial to their mental health.
How did we do it?
This research project documented what the MHN scheme involved, what worked well, what could be improved and how a toolkit could be applied across the UK. There were 3 main work packages in the research project:
- WP1: An outcome evaluation, area-based economic evaluation and cost consequence analysis.
- WP2: A qualitative, implementation and process evaluation
- WP3: Synthesis of findings from across WP1 and WP2 to inform an ‘implementation toolkit'
Dr Luke Munford, our Deputy Lead for Economic Sustainability, supported Work Package 1.
Findings
Overall, the study showed that - of the 11 variables measured - tenants were significantly more satisfied in 6 of them. The variables with improved satisfaction were:
- mental health
- job situation
- leisure activities
- personal safety
- medication
- meetings with a mental health professional.
There were also improvements for Wakefield District Housing and South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, including:
- New relationships developed between NHS and housing which allowed more holistic support for tenants
- Improved job satisfaction and confidence among housing staff
- A potential reduction in secondary care use
- A potential to save money
Some short videos were produced which showed the impact of MHNs on tenants and staff - you can view the playlist and individual videos on Youtube.
Who did we work with?
- NIHR ARC Yorkshire and Humber
- NIHR ARC North East and North Cumbria
- Wakefield District Housing
- Wakefield CCG (now part of the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership)
Funding information
This study was one of five funded through the NIHR ARC National Priority Consortium in Health and Care Inequalities. More information about the funding award is available on this NIHR ARC North East and North Cumbria project webpage.
Resources
More information
Senior Programme Lead
Mike Spence
michael.spence@manchester.ac.uk