Our health, our care, our say

Over the last few years the WISMS team has embarked on a journey of innovation and service improvement. In 2006 an unsuccessful application for social enterprise Department of Health pathfinder status, was the catalyst for this. Whilst talking to national leaders in the substance misuse field Dr Linda Harris found a receptive and understanding ear in Schering Plough. (SP). Although known for their pharmaceutical products SP's CEO Gordon Coutts was also interested in what could make a real difference to people affected by substance misuse. SP agreed to provide the resource to look at Linda's vision for WISMS becoming a reality.

In essence Dr Harris' concern was the 'revolving door' of methadone only prescribing. Could self help and other interventions help service users more? Many of these were outside the health arena, but have a huge long term impact on it. An example would be service users who are homeless. The long term clinical outlook for anyone in this position is likely to be complex and costly. Helping them to sort out accommodation would reduce health costs long term.

The resource SP put in place was to develop the people and the organisation at WISMS and its' partner organisations. No direct funding was given. Instead resource supplied training and facilitation. Examples include the Empowering Leader Programme (ELP) which ran in 2007 and which resulted in the work in Our Health Our Care Our Say. Both were run by Healthskills, a facilitation and training company, and a critical part of the overall approach.

The ELP became the springboard for the successful Integrated Care Pilot bid. The ICP should therefore be seen as part of a much longer programme of work, which developed the culture of WISMS, and those working within it, and accessing it, into one integrated team. So service users gain employment, and in turn are developing their own initiative - Merlin.

What's the saying - from little acorns oak trees grow - well from small beginnings huge innovation has and continues to develop within WISMS and its partners.