Our population data told us

The south west has areas of marked deprivation - particularly in our coastal and rural communities where access to services and access to digital technologies are challenging.

The wide geographical area covered by our services is a challenge that requires a balanced use of technology and face-to-face contact. Difficulties in access to some services such as housing, social care and primary care can impact on people's experience of mental ill-health and some communities have limited community-based resources, such as the VCSE sector, to support them.

Childhood mental illness and self-injury behaviours are particular areas of concern, as is the increasing rate of disordered eating among our young people. Devon has an older population profile and faster population growth than the national average - this leads to a changing demographic with proportionally fewer younger people. This impacts upon not just those we support but also our clinical workforce, which is becoming older.

Our areas of deprivation are associated with inequalities in life expectancy and years of healthy living. For example, someone living in the most deprived areas could expect to have around 52 years in good health, but someone living in the least deprived areas could expect to live just over 70 years before experiencing poor health. Rates of dementia and degenerative conditions and frailty are rising but, despite a great deal of work in this area, our diagnosis rates are still below the national average.

The growth in the proportion of people living with multiple long-term conditions is increasing - including conditions such as diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease.

We must take a role in identifying and managing these conditions.