Northumberland, Tyne and Wear Foundation Trust – Personality Disorder Hub Team

The ward-based deaths of four patients with complex and co-morbid emotionally unstable personality disorder (EUPD) naturally left clinicians at Northumberland, Tyne and Wear FT striving to find ways to improve patient safety for this vulnerable group. Risk aversion meant that, in many instances, patients were being sent to out of area placements.

Enter The Personality Disorder Hub Team. Initially commissioned by the six clinical commissioning groups in the area, it provides direct care coordination, case management and treatment to people who have EUPD in combination with high degrees of complexity, co-morbidity and risk to self.

The team is made up of specialist staff from a range of disciplines, including consultant clinical psychologists; psychological therapists; pharmacists; and peer support workers. As well as offering direct care, members support staff in other teams who are caring for people with a personality disorder.

In the four years for which the service has operated, there have been no suicides among the people for which it cares. Substantial reductions in bed usage have also occurred – over 98 per cent of patients have brief hospital admissions for crises, and 25 patients have been repatriated from out of area placements. This has saved the trust around £2m a year.

Said one service user: “I have always been listened to. I have felt safe. I have been kept as calm as possible. I have a better understanding of my mental health problems; thank you so much for all the care and support you’ve given me. You’ve changed my life; I wouldn’t still be alive without the help you’ve provided.”

Read a detailed case study about this project at HSJ Solutions

Finalists

  • Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust – The development and implementation of a general anaesthesia airway safety checklist for caesarean section patients – HIGHLY COMMENDED
  • Birmingham Community Healthcare FT – Reducing falls in a rehabilitation setting
  • Buckinghamshire Healthcare Trust – Use of enhanced mortality review to improve patient safety for future populations
  • Cambridge University Hospitals FT – Using digital technology to improve sepsis care and save lives
  • Healthy London Partnership and the Metropolitan Police Service – Handover process for voluntary mental health patients in emergency departments
  • Homerton University Hospital FT – Sepsis recognition and care quality improvement
  • Mersey Care FT – Reducing self harm on inpatient wards
  • Portsmouth Hospitals Trust – Time to ACT on patient deterioration
  • Royal United Hospitals Bath FT – Improved outcomes for inpatients developing sepsis and AKI using quality improvement methodology

Topics

Winners of 2018 HSJ Awards revealed