Psychosis Health Integration Team led by CLAHRC West’s Sarah Sullivan given 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 at NIHR CLAHRC West and the 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.”