We have already made improvements to community mental health care and support provision for adults aged 18 to 65. You may have seen the more traditional term ‘working age adults’ to describe this group.
We have introduced new clinical and support roles across Leeds. So far these include:
Social prescribers
This is someone who works with you for up to 12 weeks, to support any practical and emotional needs you may have. Examples include housing, money, social isolation, mild to moderate mental health, bereavement support. Your needs may not be about mental health.
Community wellbeing connectors
This is someone who works with you for a longer time if you need ongoing and regular community support because you have a severe mental illness.
They can come to you, take you to appointments and provide support to help you deal with barriers like motivation, confidence, language and not being able to use the internet or computers.
Peer support workers
This is someone who will work with you to focus on your strengths and help you to develop skills and strategies that will maintain your mental, emotional and physical health. Support is offered through a series of up to eight sessions, provided individually and in the community at a time and place that is best for you.
Also, we have:
- Increased the number of psychological therapists.
- Appointed new advanced clinical practitioners who will provide complex mental health support across the primary care networks.
- Introduced a wide range of new community services paid for through a grant funding programme.
New and growing psychological therapy groups
Our new primary care therapy team is now in its second year and is growing. Team members work with people who:
- May fall in the gaps between current services.
- Have experienced trauma and difficulty in childhood.
- Are from other marginalised or under-served groups.
Different therapy approaches include:
- Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) – which looks at how our thoughts, feelings and behaviours are linked and the repeated patterns that may be keeping the problem going.
- Cognitive analysis therapy (CAT) – focuses on patterns in relationships, both with other people and how we treat ourselves.
- Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) – helps people work through trauma memories and aims to reduce stress these cause.
Your therapist will work with you to find the approach that best suits your needs.
Groups that are new or being developed, include:
- Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP). This is a short course looking at the things that help us to stay mentally well, especially during difficult times.
- Dealing with Feelings. Group members work together to get a better understanding of life experiences, support each other and develop ways of coping. The group explores different themes, such as the biology of trauma and self-compassion.
- Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT). This group is for people struggling with intense emotions, difficulty in relationships and self-harm. It helps people to get a better understanding of their triggers and skills to help them cope.
- Journey occupational therapy group. This group is for people with a diagnosis of personality disorder or who have difficulties that may be given this label. Journey is based on understanding that what people do (their occupation) and don’t do in their daily lives impacts on their health and wellbeing.
- Group for people with unusual sensory experiences This group provides a safe place for people who are from an Ethnic Minority/Global Minority background who experience unusual sensory experiences.Examples of these experiences are hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling and feeling things that are real to the person but feel hard to explain or understand).
- Group for eating distress. This group is for people who have difficulties related to food and eating. Members work together to learn, support each other and find ways to help themselves.
Changes to services for older people are currently being designed and will be announced later.