How we can help
We work with NHS Community Treatment Teams (CTTs) to give 3-6 months of non-clinical, emotional and practical support to people on CTT waiting lists.
We help to manage increased demand on CTTs, reduce their waiting lists, and ultimately improve mental health and wellbeing outcomes for patients.
Using the power of lived experience within a workforce, and providing non-clinical specialist mental health support, frees up clinical time to support people with complex mental health needs.
- Referral: We receive a referral from a community treatment team.
- First contact: One of our Community Mental Health Support Workers contacts the person by phone within 2 working days from referral, to arrange first appointment.
- Initial appointment: 5 working days from first contact, to agree goals, create intervention and safety plans, and complete initial Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs).
- 3-6 months of support: evidence-based interventions delivered in-person or over phone or video call, focusing on emotional regulation, anxiety management, behavioural activation. Also includes signposting and introduction to other local community services.
- Recovery journey: Person is stepped down once goals are met. A Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) and safety plan are co-created.
Delivered in partnership with the NHS
We work closely with the NHS in design and delivery. Our NHS colleagues identify which waiting lists to target, and we work with existing waiting list management processes to identify the right people to support.
Our specialist non-clinical workforce
We recruit people with a variety of skills to Community Mental Health Support Worker roles, including former mental health nurses, social workers, teachers, psychology graduates, and people with lived experience of mental health difficulties. Our diverse workforce use their varied skills to support holistic recovery to meet people’s needs.
Person-centred interventions to develop resilience and community connections
Our Community Mental Health Support team works closely with people to:
- Understand their needs
- Deliver interventions to improve mental health
- Connect them with community resources to support their ongoing recovery
Service costs
The service information pack at the bottom of this page gives full detail of the indicative saving to CTTs of £2,979 per episode of care. These savings are based on data from our existing service and the NHS National Cost Collection.
We co-created the first service with Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Trust (CNTW), to support their Sunderland and South Tyneside CTTs.
Delivering improved outcomes
In Sunderland and South Tyneside, 84% of people supported by the service demonstrated improved WEMWBS scores at the end of their support period.
Increasing clinical capacity
In the year before this initiative, Sunderland and South Tyneside CTTs experienced a 37% increase in people awaiting treatment for more than 18 weeks, and their total caseload size increased by 34%.
After the first year of our service, the CTT waiting list reduced from 200 people waiting for up to 2 years, to only 86 people waiting 6 months.
If you are an NHS organisation and would like to know more about how we could partner together, please contact Pasha Tanriverdi, our Head of Service Development:
