Insight team (early intervention in psychosis)
Page last updated on:
About the service
The Insight (early intervention in psychosis) team supports the early identification of mental illness (psychosis) in a person aged 14 -35. The team supports their treatment and recovery to help people maintain their wellbeing.
The aims of the service are:
- Reduce the stigma associated with psychosis and improve professional and general public awareness of the symptoms of early psychosis.
- Promoting the need and benefits of an early assessment.
- Reduce the period of time people remain undiagnosed and untreated.
- Develop meaningful engagement, provide evidence-based interventions and promote recovery during the early stages of psychosis.
- Increase the stability of the lives of the young people accessing the service
- Provide a person-centred service that integrates the child, adolescent and adult mental health services and works in partnership with primary care services, family services and youth services.
- Work in partnership with other services to ensure that the young people accessing the service have quick and easy pathways into services appropriate to meet their needs.
- Provide training, advice, and consultation to other service providers who may be working with this group of service users in order to help them respond in more efficient ways.
- Provide structure and activities to develop life and employment skills.
Why would someone choose the service?
- We offer a recovery focussed approach to support service users and those close to them to deal with and manage the potentially traumatic experience of psychosis. We support all those affected to maintain hope for the future.
- Our practice is guided by national guidance which means that we strive to offer talking therapies as well as any medical interventions. This might involve meeting with the individual or meeting their family to support them and help them to understand their experiences and develop ways to manage their difficulties. Identifying early signs of relapse and developing useful and effective management strategies that will enable independence and support the service user in achieving their life goals
- We have a strong focus on helping people build their confidence to maintain and build on social, educational and employment opportunities, and do this through social, creative and sporting groups. This can include actively supporting people to attend employment or education, or supporting them to arrange volunteer placements.
- We have a clear commitment to look after a person’s physical health as well as their mental health and work closely with our GP colleagues to achieve this.
Staff you may meet
- Administrative staff provide essential support to doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals. This can be in a variety of different settings, with administrators working as a receptionist in a clinic or a clerk on a ward. They may also be working closely with a consultant as a medical secretary.
- There are more than 60 different specialities that doctors work within the NHS. Each is unique but there are many characteristics which are common. Roles range from working in a hospital to being based in the community as a GP.
- Domestic staff have a vital role in helping to care for patients. They work in one of three key areas; catering, cleaning or laundry services. All of these services play an important part in aiding an individual’s recovery.
- Nurses who choose to specialise in the mental health branch of nursing work with GPs, psychiatrists, psychologists, and others, to help care for patients. Increasingly, care is given in the community, with mental health nurses visiting patients and their families at home, in residential centres, in prisons or in specialist clinics or units.
- Occupational therapy is the assessment and treatment of physical and psychiatric conditions using specific, purposeful activity to prevent disability and promote independent function in all aspects of daily life.
- The NHS employs a wide range of clinical staff, it wouldn’t be possible to list them all on this website! All our clinical staff are skilled, dedicated professionals who adhere to high standards of training and work-place practice.
- Receptionists are the first link for many patients and visitors. They often work on their own or with one or two other receptionists, greeting patients as they arrive and check them in. They might also collect patient notes and ensure that these vital records go to the right healthcare professional. In a clinic, they may make appointments and arrange patient transport.
- Social workers help, support and protect people who are facing difficulties in their lives. They help people to take positive steps to overcome problems and improve their lives. This could involve assessing and reviewing a service user’s situation, building relationships with service users and their families and agreeing what practical support someone needs.
- We have a range of health workers who all have different specialities. This could be in a certain condition, a therapy or the advice they can give you. Our specialists our highly skilled and trained professionals, ready to offer you help and advice whenever you need it.
- Telephonists (also known as switchboard operators) are employed throughout the health service. They may work on a busy switchboard in a hospital or the Trust headquarters. Like receptionists, they are an important first point of contact for patients and their families and are a vital link between a caller and the person who can help.
Why a professional should choose the service
- All people accepted onto the team caseload for extended assessment or full service provision are subject to Care Programme Approach (CPA)
- All people accepted onto the team caseload have an allocated care coordinator and have a co-produced care plan
- All non-urgent referrals for assessment are seen within 14 calendar days. This meets the regional CQUIN Indicator 2.
- Service users are seen within 7 days of discharge from hospital as per Monitor requirements
- Calderdale Insight outcomes are in line with national statistics for early intervention in psychosis.
- The service is committed to screening and interventions around physical health to meet the CQUIN indicator 3.1
- Calderdale Insight consistently achieves all performance targets
- Service user feedback from the October 2013 survey was positive regarding care and treatment
- We have good working relationships with teams within the Trust that support a smooth transition between services
- Insight is a flexible and responsive service and client contact is made at the earliest opportunity
- We are committed to working with service users in the planning and implementation of social activities
- Insight has successfully inducted four volunteers who are actively involved with the group work
- Calderdale insight has a strong relationship with Remploy and has been successful in supporting people back into employment
- All team members have completed appraisals and professional development plan
- All qualified team members are trained at degree level or above and able to provide evidence-based assessments and interventions
- Calderdale Insight is regarded as a centre of excellence for student training
Support offered
- Assessment: a range of specialist assessments including assessment for an “at risk” mental state, recovery focussed and symptom-specific assessments
- Allocation of a care coordinator
- Care plan or care package developed between service user and staff
- Outcome and evidence-based interventions including psychological interventions around the person’s psychotic experiences or accompanying anxiety or depression.
- Monitoring of medication
- Physical health monitoring in relation to prescribed medication
- Promotion of self-management
- Health and wellbeing advice and support
- Access to vocational support services
- Employment support (via Remploy)
- Support with accessing education and training
- Education/advice and support in addressing substance use
- Support with finance management
- Support with tenancy management
- Family interventions
- Carer assessment/support
- Access to local groups and services
- Evaluation and review of care and treatment
- Risk assessment and management plan
- Crisis and contingency plan
Outcomes
- Early engagement with service
- Early detection of psychosis and rapid access to effective treatment
- Reduced period of untreated symptoms (psychosis) and improve the long-term outcome of psychosis
- Maintained contact with community services including education, employment and training
- Ability to self-care and manage needs independently
- Improved engagement and access to community services
- Improved physical health and wellbeing
- Relapse prevention planning
- Ensure the smooth transition to other services if required at the end of the treatment period
Referrals accepted from:
A & E, Carers/family, CMHTs, Consultants, Drug/alcohol agencies, GPs, Health visitors, Hospital staff, Housing associations, Local authority staff, Midwives, Other NHS services, Other Trust services, Patients(self-referral), Police, Schools, Single Point of Access team, Voluntary services, Youth centres, Youth Offending Team
Referral criteria:
All referrals will be assessed within 14 days. Insight does not accept urgent referrals for working-age adults.
Young people (aged 14 – 18years) will be seen within 14 days – however, if a referral for this age group is viewed to be urgent, the referral will be assessed within 4 hours. Referrals for this age group are made directly to the team.
Referral criteria:
- The person should be resident within the Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) area or registered with local GP in Calderdale.
- The person is experiencing the first episode of psychosis or the referrer should have a strong suspicion that this is the case or deemed to have an ‘at risk’ mental state.
- People aged between 14 and 35 with a first presentation of psychotic symptoms.
- People aged between 14 and 35 during the first three years of psychotic illness.
It is preferable that the person has not been treated with antipsychotic medication in the last 12 weeks. This is so other treatments can be offered. Evidence suggests that this enhances the recovery process.
Insight will work with individuals who have substance misuse issues, however, the service isn’t suitable for people who only experience brief symptoms of psychosis as a result of substance misuse.