Mental Health Intensive Support Team triumph

“In the absence of family, they are like my second family”

These are the words of a service user who wished to pay tribute to the CWP Mental Health Intensive Support Team (MHIST) – a new service recently shortlisted for three national awards.

Working across Cheshire and Wirral, the community rehabilitation team initially focused on supporting people receiving care in specialist placements, far away from home to move back into their community. More recently the team have used their skills and expertise to support people accessing acute care services – aiming to compassionately care for their needs to ensure they can return to living back in the community.

Lucy Mahon, clinical lead, occupational therapy, said:

“We can work really closely and intensively with people. Service users and their families get to know the practitioners and work on the goals that are important to them.”

Nominated for HSJ Patient Safety, Royal College of Psychiatrist and Positive Practice in Mental Health awards, the team has gone from strength-to-strength. Louise Gill, head of clinical service said: “It’s empowering to work for the service because these are people who may have not have had hope for themselves, and we’re able to instil that hope back, and have had positive outcomes so far.”