Home › Service directory › Intensive home based treatment team (Barnsley)
Intensive home based treatment team (Barnsley)
Page last updated on:
About the service
The intensive home based treatment team provide a service to adults from the age of 18 and above who are experiencing an acute mental crisis where there are significant risks to themselves/and or others. The service aims to provide intensive community support and facilitate earlier discharge from inpatient mental health services.
Why would someone choose the service?
- The intensive home based treatment team is committed to listening to service user and carer feedback – we write to every service user and carer who received care from the team
- These responses are used to further develop the team and improve practice. Examples include improvements in care planning and the production of an information leaflet stating the service offer and frequently asked questions from service users and carers
- The latest feedback from service users and carers referenced the positive aspect of home treatment rather than inpatient care. 98% rated the service as good or better with 91% rating very good or excellent
Staff you may meet
- 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.
- There are many people who work behind the scenes to keep services running and you may meet them in hospital or community settings. They include porters, cleaners, plumbers, electricians, decorators receptionists and secretaries who all work to make sure healthcare settings are kept clean, tidy and safe.
- 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.
- Nursing or healthcare assistants work in hospital or community settings under the guidance of a qualified healthcare professional. They help doctors, nurses and therapists give people the care and treatment they need.
- 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.
- 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.
Why a professional should choose the service
- The intensive home based treatment team gate-keep 100% of all referrals for hospital admission assessing over 99% of service users face to face. As a result, hospital admissions have reduced by 34% over the last 6 years
- The team achieves the target of 515 episodes of home based treatment every year
- The proportion of informal service users admitted to hospital has decreased as a direct result of the team’s commitment to offering a least restrictive practice
- The number of service users offered home based treatment prior to hospital admission continues to increase, again suggestive of least restrictive practice and promoting service user and carer choice of care.
- The team have promoted a wider whole systems approach to service user care within the acute pathway, as a result, reduced bypassed admissions to 0%
- The team have strengthened their commitment to continuity of care for service users admitted by attending 72hr multi-disciplinary team reviews for all service users admitted to hospital. These reviews look at the current needs of the service user and consider the possibility of early discharge with a dedicated in-reach practitioner for support
- The team continue to assess service users admitted to hospital to consider early discharge as a least -restrictive care option. This has resulted in demonstrable reductions in inpatient admission and length of stay.
- The interventions of the team have reduced out of area bed usage from 14 in 2008/9 to 0 since 2010/11
Support offered
- Alternative and choices of visits and treatment
- Negotiation of an agreed care plan
- Developing relationships of trust
- Offering intensive support to meet individual needs
- Listening and talking
- Resolution of emotional distress
- Problem-solving
- Practical support
- Anxiety management
- Education about mental health
- Symptom management
- Offering information and guidance on medications
- Referral to specialist services
- Self-directed recovery plans
- Wellbeing plans
Outcomes
- Resolution of crisis
- Recovery
- Relapse prevention
- Significant reduction in risk factors identified at the point of crisis.
- Improved social functioning
- People are discharged back to community services at the point when the level of care provided by the service is not needed and can be provided by other parts of the mental health services
Referrals accepted from:
Carers/family, CMHTs, Consultants, Courts, Drug/alcohol agencies, GP staff, GPs, Health visitors, Local authority staff, Midwives, Other Trust services, Police, Youth Offending Team
Referrals also accepted from:
Referrals also accepted from the mental health liaison team, service users as part of crisis contingency plans, carers/family as part of crisis contingency plans, psychology service and mental health inpatient services.
Referral criteria:
When a person experiences an acute mental illness or severe mental health crisis the nature of this can include psychotic illness, depressive illness, adjustment disorders, psychological or personality disturbance causing intensive distress.
A face-to-face assessment will be offered within four hours of referral. Referrals will come through the intensive home based treatment team central number. In some cases, the person who is being referred will already have had a face-to-face assessment conducted by the referrer.
The service will not normally manage, as, part of a caseload, individuals with learning disability and alcohol/substance misuse unless they are presenting a mental health problem which needs immediate treatment. The service will not accept referrals for individuals with disorders caused by decreased mental function such as dementia rather than a psychiatric illness.