The partnership between the Trust and Southern Health and Social Care Trust (SHSCT) in Northern Ireland is reaping rewards and the team are getting some great feedback from people who have used the service.

Effects of the COVID Pandemic

The Steps to Wellness service is based on the Improving Access to Talking Therapies (Talking Therapies) model in England. Health leads in Northern Ireland were looking for a way to provide mental health support to local people after the COVID pandemic. They had high numbers of people looking for support following lockdown, illness and loss, with many reporting low mood, anxiety, feelings of sadness, distress, and other difficult emotions. They identified the IAPT model and ELFT as having potential to address their needs.

Trying a New Approach

The Steps to Wellness approach is a new way to provide psychological help and many were initially unsure of the benefits of attending workshops over a one-to-one approach. But as the feedback below shows, it is effective and really equips people to manage and move forward:

“I have taken part in the Steps to Wellness programme over the past 10 weeks and have found it very beneficial.  I suffer with severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD )and although I am not ‘cured’ I have learned to think of my OCD in a different way. I have learned techniques to calm myself and manage my OCD  better. My two therapists are lovely, very professional, knowledgeable, caring and supportive.

It helped to talk to them and also to other members of the group knowing that they understood how I was behaving/feeling and sharing experiences. Knowing that other people were struggling the same way as me even though they were just ‘normal’ people”

The Southern Health and Social Care Trust (SHSCT) provides health and social care services across the five council areas of Armagh, Banbridge, Craigavon, Dungannon, and Newry and Mourne. Our partnership started in November 2021. In that time, ELFT have recruited three staff to manage the service and a practitioner to deliver clinical work. They have provided training to 10 SHSCT practitioners and team leads to be able to provide IAPT interventions and therapies. They have completed over 250 assessments to ascertain individuals who would benefit from this approach. Where the service is not the right one for them, the team have sourced alternative services from the community and voluntary sector where appropriate. In the initial stages of the project, Steps to Wellness has been successful in reducing the waiting time of over 350 service users.