Rehabilitation services
Enhanced rehabilitation services ‘help people recover from the difficulties of longer-term mental health problems’ (Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2019a). They provide specialist assessment and support for people whose complex needs cannot be met by general mental health services, to help them build the skills needed to live successfully in the community (Joint Commissioning Panel for Mental Health, 2016).
NICE guidelines on rehabilitation for adults with complex psychosis state that rehabilitation services should take a recovery-orientate approach that is embedded in local mental healthcare services. Experts in rehabilitation state that (Killaspy et al., 2021):
- Inadequate provision of mental health rehabilitation services results in thousands of people with complex psychosis across the UK receiving inpatient rehabilitation many miles from home, which prolongs their time in hospital unnecessarily and undermines the rehabilitation process.
- People with complex psychosis wait too long to access rehabilitation; on average, they have been known to mental health services for 10 years and experienced recurrent admissions before they are referred for mental health rehabilitation.
- People treated in out of area rehabilitation units have twice the length of stay of those treated locally.
CPFT had a dedicated rehabilitation pathway for people with complex psychosis, which was de-commissioned in 2012. There is currently no community rehabilitation service or pathway specifically for adults in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. Instead, community support to this cohort is provided by adult locality teams.
Additional Resources
- Guidance for commissioners of rehabilitation services for people with complex mental health needs
- Enabling recovery for people with complex mental health needs: A template for rehabilitation services
References
Full list of references is included at the end of this chapter.