20/11/2020
Our Redcar and Cleveland community affective disorders team has been crowned ‘team of the year’ in the working-age adults category of the national Royal College of Psychiatrists awards.
The Royal College of Psychiatrists awards celebrate the innovative and inspiring work being done in psychiatry. The Redcar and Cleveland community affective disorders service was recognised for developing a new pathway for patients with autistic spectrum disorder.
Lenny Cornwall, consultant psychiatrist at TEWV said “I am delighted that our hard-working team have won this award. It is testament to the significant amount of work that has gone into delivering the project. National recognition of our work is an honour and an amazing achievement and our staff should be proud of the difference their work makes.”
The project was designed to address assessment waiting times for autism assessments and to improve patient care and experience as a result. As part of the project everyone on the team was trained in autism awareness and additional staff were trained in carrying out autism assessments to help improve the speed with which people were assessed and to provide a deeper level of understanding and support for those living with autism. The team also ran an innovative group therapy programme which has shown benefits for patients with autistic spectrum disorders for the first time in community mental health services.
Ahmad Khouja, medical director at TEWV said “The work of the team has led to shorter waiting times for autism assessments and an improvement in the quality of care provided as a result. I would like to offer my heartfelt congratulations for this highly prestigious award .”
As a result of the achievements, the new pathway will be rolled out across the rest of the Trust area where it is hoped it will continue to have benefits for other service users.