Agenda item

Natalie Arthur, Islington CCG was present for discussion of this item and a presentation was made to the Committee, copy interleaved. She was accompanied by Farideh Dizadi, Clinical Services Manager, Nafsiyat and Tahera Aanchawan, Director Maya Centre.

During discussion the following main points were made –

·         Non IATP talking therapies have a targeted service in response to local demand – 3 elements BMER communities, Child Sexual Abuse and Domestic Violence and Bereavement

·         This is jointly funded by the Council and the CCG through third sector providers and is a time limited service of between 12 and 20 sessions

·         This service complements existing IATP provision to support an increase in access to psychological therapy for identified under represented communities and to provide counselling for those who have suffered a bereavement

·         The service differs from IAPT in that it has a higher threshold, equivalent to Step 3 on IATP stepped care model, has a women only element, access to therapists with a range of language skills, overcome cultural barriers by matching service users to therapists with the same background and is non NHS and helps to overcome barriers associated with the fear of Mental Health services

·         50% of those who complete treatment will be moving to recovery (aligned with IAPT) target and 60% of those who complete treatment maintain a clinically significant improvement at 3 months post therapy

·         40% of those who complete treatment maintain a clinically significant improvement at 6 months post therapy and 50% of those who complete treatment access ongoing support within the community including peer support

·         50% of those who complete treatment self-report an improved level of confidence in maintaining their own mental well-being

·         A high number of referrals are received and the majority are accepted and the referral rate and number on the waiting list for BMER and Bereavement services indicates that the target for accessing treatment will be met however there were concerns around the recovery rates for CSA/DV and bereavement services, however it is felt that the measurement is partly affected by data reporting tools

·         Performance against key areas of focus an increase in people from BMER communities accessing talking therapies and increase in men accessing talking therapies and an increase in older people accessing talking therapies. LGTB representation is difficult to measure due to lack of self-reporting

·         Challenges include – demand for services compared to service capacity, over 100 on waiting list, interim support for those on waiting list, availability of Turkish speaking therapists, encouraging access from other BMER groups, encouraging access from older people and men, and performance monitoring and measuring outcomes

·         In response to a question it was stated that the therapies were complementary to IATP therapies and that it was encouraging to see new communities accessing services

·         Future developments include investment in reporting system, in line with IATP service, improved performance reporting to support better understanding of gaps in provision and low recovery rate, performance figures to contribute to local IATP data from 2018/19 and supporting local Syrian refugees resettlement programme linking in with Camden and Islington Foundation Trust’s Complex Depression and Trauma service

·         It was noted that the Mayat Centre was a women’s only project and therapists were community based and looked at the client in the whole and the Mayat and Nasfiyat Centres aimed to maximise their resources

·         Discussion took place as to the over representation of the Turkish community accessing services and that whilst this needed to be assessed it indicated the success of the scheme given that the Turkish community had previously not accessed the service. It was noted that it was hoped to increase the number of Turkish therapists

·         In response to a question it was stated that in terms of BMER there was a 4/5 waiting list but bereavement waiting lists were shorter but work did take place with people waiting for treatment

·         Whilst it was difficult to get patients to provide feedback these were looking to be improved

·         Reference was made to the fact that there was a need to establish the number of Kurdish users in relation to Turkish users of the service, and it was stated that Kurdish users were considered separately

The Chair thanked Natalie Arthur, ADD IN OTHERS for attending