Complex Needs Service Cheshire East

Information leaflet for staff and service users

Introduction – who is this service for?

This service is available to people who experience mental health difficulties of a complexity that means they do not meet the criteria for Primary Care IAPT (Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies).

 People who are referred to this service often have a history of emotional, behavioural and/or relationship difficulties sometimes stemming from early traumatic experiences. Some people may also experience depression and/or anxiety.

Some people may express difficult emotions through impulsive, destructive or self-harming behaviours.

 People in our service sometimes use other services frequently and experience repeated episodes of care with limited success. In some cases we work with teams who have noticed that work with a particular individual is complex and requires consultation.

What to expect – what can our service offer?

Referrals are made by emailing the referral form to the address at the end of this leaflet. We may want to speak with the referrer after receiving this. We will discuss the referral and get back to the referrer with our decision.

Assessment/Screening

Everyone accepted into the service will take part in a screening/assessment process. Some people require a one session screening appointment to ascertain which part of the service could help most.

Other people, often those in secondary care services, may need a few more sessions to complete an assessment involving psychological and risk formulation and recommendations of what may help.

Following the screening/assessment process people will either be placed on the waiting list for the appropriate part of this service, described below, or discharged and/or signposted to other services.

Individual Therapy

Some people benefit most from individual therapy to address their issues. This service offers therapies such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), EMDR and Psychodynamic Therapies amongst others. Secondary care services users can request access to individual therapy through their CMHTs.

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy

BT is appropriate for people whose main aim is to reduce self-harm and suicidal behaviour. It consists of a weekly educational skills training group and individual sessions to explore triggering events, unhelpful coping behaviours and use of the skills learnt. DBT is only available to service users with GPs in the South and Vale Royal Clinical Commissioning Groups’ areas.

Democratic Day Therapeutic Community

‘The Group’ is a democratic day therapeutic community which meets for a full day on a Wednesday in Winsford. The group aims to provide a predictable and safe space to help people explore and understand what may lead to increased distress, strong thoughts and feelings, relationship difficulties, and unhelpful ways of coping. This democratic way of working is designed to empower people to feel greater ability at, and responsibility for, helping themselves and other group members

Consultation

Some people do not wish to be seen for face-to-face appointments by this service. However, we can still help them by working with the secondary care staff team around them. This consultation work is an opportunity to think about the relationship between the staff and service user.

This can be helpful when the team or the service user feel ‘stuck’ and want some support to think about how to move forward, particularly where there are high risks. We will meet with the aim of developing a shared understanding of where the difficulties lie and how the situation can be improved.

Reflective practice

The service can also offer reflective practice sessions to help teams think more psychologically about service users with complex presentations.

These sessions can help staff to better understand difficulties experienced by teams, the emotions experienced and the roles we adopt, especially when working with service users who use high risk ways of coping. It can also be useful in helping staff with their own self-care and gaining support in their work.

Contact/Referrals

To make a referral please complete the referral form and email it to us.

  • To contact us: Email: cwp.cns.east@nhs.net
  • Telephone: 01270 656355
  • Address: Complex Needs Service East Delamere Resource Centre 45 Delamere Street Crewe CW1 4E

 

If you would like this information in another format, please speak to a member of CWP staff or e-mail cwp.info@nhs.net.

June 2019, Version 1