Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust

On this page

• Overview
• Person-centred Care
• Care provision, Integration and continuity
• Providing Information
• Listening to and involving people
• Equity in access
• Equity in experiences and outcomes
• Planning for the future

The service did not provide equity in access for all interventions equally across the geographical area of the trust. Availability for psychology input differed across geographical areas and areas in Wiltshire had prolonged wait times for Psychology input compared to other locations . This meant people did not have equal access to some services across the geographical locations of the trust.

This service scored 71 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The majority of people we spoke to, told us they felt listened to and involved in the planning and delivery of their care.

Staff told us that people’s feedback and co-production was vital to their role. Team leaders emphasised the importance of staff including patients in the care planning to ensure strategies were personalised and meaningful.

We observed duty triage staff interacting with people, taking time to listen to their concerns and what support they wanted. Agreed coping strategies and assessment of current risk were talked through before discussing the next steps of support that would benefit the person.

The service has key performance indicators for areas of work and deadlines for completion. This included meeting targets of staff meeting with patients at agreed regular intervals, reviewing progress and ensuring the patient was able to achieve agreed actions.

Most people told us they could access support when they needed it, at other times people stated they felt unable at times to get access to crisis support. However, this was another service group within the trust and not applicable to the CMHT.

Staff told us that access to therapy across the whole service is mixed. Wait times for Psychology within Wiltshire was longer than those within the Bath, North-East Somerset and Bristol regions. This is partly due to difficulty recruiting to those applicable vacancies. This meant that people across the geographical area covered by the trust did not always have equal access to therapeutic interventions at the time they need it . Staff felt the lack of psychology input negatively impacted people’s recovery times.

Audits undertaken by the trust highlight statistics across the service that show disparity in access and wait times. Locations had vacancies to fill these positions and leaders are aware of the challenges to recruit. Within the Wiltshire geographical area, leaders spoke of the potential and importance of sharing resources to minimise shortfalls in all shortages of staff. This was being discussed at local levels with plans to implement in the future . However, there was no identified timeframe for this.