Transforming community mental health services
Patient name: Fatima (pseudonym to maintain confidentiality)
Age: 55
Borough: Rochdale
What was happening:
- Experiencing severe anxiety, largely due to a build-up of work pressure.
- Off work for a long time.
- Avoiding friends.
- Gave up hobbies.
- Barely left the house.
- Saw GP and had been waiting for counselling for a long time, due to limited capacity.
Support received:
- Fatima’s GP put her in touch with the practice’s new senior mental health practitioner.
- She spoke to Fatima to understand the issues she’d been experiencing.
- It was agreed the senior mental health practitioner would support Fatima, alongside the associate psychological practitioner.
- During regular sessions, Fatima learned:
- To identify triggers and to understand why she was constantly fearful.
- To control anxiety through breathing exercises and distraction techniques
- How self-care, such as eating and sleeping well, really does make a difference.
- How to build on learning at home
- The senior practitioner maintained contact with Fatima’s GP
How it helped:
- There was a vast improvement in Fatima’s mental health scores (questions used to monitor progress).
- Fatima was eventually able to return to work, on a phased basis.
- She resumed her hobbies and seeing her friends.
- It gave her the confidence to make a significant life change.
In her own words:
Fatima said: “It was a saving grace to be told I could receive immediate support from new mental health professionals working within the practice. I hadn’t heard of anything like that before.
“They really listened and gave suggestions rather than telling me what to do. I was encouraged to go away and build on what I learned in the sessions, which helped me feel more in control and empowered.
“With baby steps I was able to build myself back up and become the person I used to be.
“It’s been a rocky road, but I feel really lucky to have been one of the first people to benefit from this new approach."