08 July 2009
Patients across Leicestershire county and Rutland are set to benefit from reduced waiting times for psychological therapies following NHS Leicestershire and Rutland's decision to commission Assura West Leicestershire LLP to run a new mental health service.
Working in partnership with Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust and mental health charity Rethink, Assura West Leicestershire LLP will aim to reduce waiting times for psychological therapies from an average of several months to several days.
Introduced as part of the Government's £170m ‘Improving Access to Psychological Therapies’ programme, the new service will provide easier access to effective mental health services as well as offering support within a community care setting to people with severe mental health illnesses.
At present, national waiting time for talking therapies, such as cognitive behavioural therapy, can be up to 18 months. The new service, which will launch later this year, will mean that following referral, people with a range of mental health problems, from anxiety to schizophrenia, will be contacted within 48 hours, with face to face treatment starting within a couple of weeks.
The new service will work to support the development of existing services and create more capacity and a wider choice of treatments. It will also provide access to a wider range of people, addressing the needs of suffering with anxiety and depression through to bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
As the service is led by local GPs, working in partnership with the acute trust and a local charity, the service will offer seamless care across primary and secondary care, and engage with the wider community and will eventually triple the number of mental health staff providing specialist support to patients in primary care, from the present team of 27 to 85.
When the new service begins there will be as many as 59 members of staff providing a service to up to 6,111 patients across the two counties, rising to 18,000 patients when the service is fully operational.
Dr Ian Cracknell, local GP and chair of Assura West Leicestershire, said: "We are delighted our partnership has been awarded the contract to provide this much needed new mental health service. It is a tribute to the enormous amount of work that we have undertaken working closely with our local clinical colleagues, Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust and Rethink.
"As GPs we will now have significantly more input into local mental health services which will not only provide better access to psychological therapies, but will ensure that those suffering from mental health problems get the best possible care at the earliest opportunity. We look forward to our continued working with Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust and Rethink."
Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust Director of Integrated Locality Services, Neil Doverty, said: "We are delighted that the PCT has awarded the contract to the consortium.
"As a Trust we’ve always worked very closely with partner organisations and we’re very excited about working with new partners from the voluntary and primary health sectors to provide this service. Our joint approach will ensure that patients receive the very highest quality mental health care and advice."
Eddie Greenwood of mental health charity Rethink, said: "This project will dramatically reduce waiting times for talking therapies for many thousands of people with mental health problems.
"In addition, by offering people the chance to self refer or be referred through their Job Centre Plus, we hope to reach groups who sometimes do not get access to talking therapies because they are less likely to go to their GP and ask for help.
"It will be delivered in a wide range of locations across the area, meaning that people get the help they need, when they need it, where they need it."
ENDS
Press enquiries regarding Assura Group to:
Andrew McKeon, AJM Public Relations.
Tel: 01423 734 560; Mobile: 07802 484 155
Louise Bathersby, Assura Group.
Tel: 020 7107 3830
