Psychosis Health Integration Team gets go ahead

A new Psychosis Health Integration Team (HIT) has been given
the green light by the Bristol Health Partners executive group. The team is led
by Dr Sarah Sullivan, Research Fellow, CLAHRC
West and Centre for Academic Mental Health, University of Bristol, Dr Simon
Downer, Consultant Psychiatrist, Bristol Mental Health and Honorary Clinical
Lecturer, Centre for Academic Mental Health, University of Bristol and Dr
Martin Jones, Chair of Bristol Clinical Commissioning Group. A peer director,
representing and involving service users and carers, is being recruited.

The Psychosis HIT aims to hear
the voices of people who experience psychosis, their families and carers, and
those of staff in mental health services and other settings, in order to
improve services across the city. It will focus on eight aims:

1. Improve employment opportunities
2. Improve appropriateness and therapeutic value of hospitalisation
3. Improve general (physical) health outcomes
4. Better integration of care pathways
5. Greater emphasis on the relationship with trauma
6. Better engagement with people’s networks from the outset
7. More caring crisis response
8. Improving staff health (the impact of working with people with psychosis)

HIT co-Director Dr Sarah
Sullivan said: “I am delighted that we have been approved to become a
fully-fledged Health Integration Team. People living with psychosis face
considerable challenges, as do those around them, from family, friends and
carers to health professionals. The Psychosis HIT aims to improve the quality
of life and experience of people with psychosis, both in their day to day
personal lives and the contact that they have with health services. I look
forward to tackling these challenges with my co-Directors and the rest of the
team.”

Bristol Health Partners
Director David Relph said: “Many congratulations to the team. The panel was
very impressed with the strength of their submission. I’d like to take this
opportunity to thank them for producing such an exciting proposal: we were
delighted to see the energy with which they have embraced the Bristol Health
Partners HIT concept. This team has the potential to make a real difference to
the lives of people living with psychosis in Bristol, and I look forward to
working closely with them in the future.”