Mental Health Award

Winner: Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

The Brent relapse prevention project: Relapse prevention is a relatively new intervention for people with serious and enduring mental illness. Presented by Rami Jumnoodoo (pictured) from Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, the project aims to restore hope and improve clients' quality of life to help maintain the recovery of those who have complex needs, to empower them in service development, and to enable people with serious and enduring mental illness to manage their own conditions

Winner: Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

The Brent relapse prevention project: Relapse prevention is a relatively new intervention for people with serious and enduring mental illness. Presented by Rami Jumnoodoo (pictured) from Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, the project aims to restore hope and improve clients' quality of life to help maintain the recovery of those who have complex needs, to empower them in service development, and to enable people with serious and enduring mental illness to manage their own conditions.

Over a three-year period, 125 patients who have a serious and enduring mental illness have been discharged from residential services in Brent and placed in independent accommodation. Only six people relapsed and the duration of hospitalisation was two weeks, compared with months under previous circumstances.

'The standard of the shortlisted entries in the mental health category was outstanding and choosing one overall winner extremely difficult,' the judges said. 'The winning project is an excellent idea. It is backed by a wealth of research, shows evidence of very good outcomes and the service user and carer involvement in the project is very positive. Overall this initiative shone in every criteria we judged.'

---------------------------------

Highly commended

Sheffield Care Trust
Enhancing pathways into care: This creative project used local and national evidence to improve the care of Pakistani people who are disproportionately represented in acute psychiatric services. Funding has been secured to employ a community development worker who will be dedicated to improving pathways of care for Pakistani service users, providing information and psycho-education to families and helping to secure earlier discharge from inpatient psychiatric wards.

---------------------------------

Finalists

Gloucestershire PCT
Mental health triage in primary care: Based in five local GP practices, this project assessed the mental health needs of up to five patients per clinic, all of whom had mild to moderate presentations of common mental health problems. Following assessment, the mental health nurse would signpost appropriate services, give advice or refer to specialist teams, following up care where appropriate.

Knowsley Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), Five Boroughs Partnership NHS Trust
Improving the mental and emotional health of looked-after children: The numbers of children entering the care system are growing each year. The age group of those children, however, is getting younger. This project, which was led by nurse specialists, was aimed at providing early mental and emotional health assessment of those children who would be entering public care.

South Essex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Mind and body – working holistically to address the physical health needs of service users with mental health problems: If there is a lack of attention paid to the physical health needs of people who have mental health problems, their lifespan can be shortened by as much as 10 years. This project addressed issues such as exercise, diet, medication, relationships, confidence building, return to work, blood glucose monitoring and a range of other strategies, which were all aimed at ensuring that service users claimed their right to be included in their society.

---------------------------------

Judges

- Nerys Hairon, assistant clinical editor, Nursing Times
- Donna Eldridge, assistant director of nursing, Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust
- Lesley Warner, mental health consultant