Item 34

Working with community services

Target

a) Communication and joint meetings between CRT and involved staff from other community mental health services are evident for at least 80% of service users with involved community services during CRT care.

b) CRT discharge plans and treatment summaries are routinely sent to GPs and involved mental health services promptly (within 3 days) at the end of CRT care (for at least 80% of service users).

c) The CRT has an identified link worker or equivalent for at least one key community mental health service who visits the service at least monthly to discuss joint working issues.

d) CRT and community mental health service managers meet at least every two months to review care pathways and referral protocols and address issues re joint working. 

e) There is all source agreement that there are good working relationships between the CRT and other community teams.

Why this is important

The work of the CRT will often join up with that carried out by other community services. Many service users will already have an involved community service, and others might benefit from this input when they exit CRT care. It is therefore important that the CRT is able to cultivate effective relationships with other community services, both through links at a management level and through frequent joint meetings between workers from the CRT, other services, and the individual service user.

Ways of doing this well

Good working relationships

The CRT in Wales prioritises communication to ensure good working relationships with other services, including the voluntary sector:

• Wales CRT case study (.doc)

The Chichester team use a standard fax form to request information from GPs:

• Chichester fax form to request medical information from GPs (.doc)

Examples of good practice

In our fidelity review survey of 75 crisis teams in 2014, the following teams achieved excellent model fidelity, and can be contacted for advice about how they achieved this:

• South Gloucester CRT, Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust
• Wyre Forest, Bromsgrove and Redditch HTT, Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust
• Pontypool CRHTT, NHS Wales
• West Gwent CRHTT, NHS Wales
• West Suffolk HTT, Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust
• Waltham Forest HTT, North East London NHS Foundation Trust
• Tower Hamlets HTT, East London NHS Foundation Trust
• Great Yarmouth CMHT, Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust
• Eastbourne CRT, Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
• Mid Surrey (Epsom) HTT, Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
• Sandwell CRHTT, Black Country Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
• Mendip CRHTT, Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust 
• South Hams and West Devon CRHTT, Devon Partnership NHS Trust
• Taunton and Bridgewater CRHTT, Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust 
• Chichester CRHTT, Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
• Edinburgh IHTT, NHS Lothian

Relevant reading