Work of local mental health team noticed by Royal College of Psychiatrists

Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust’s (LPFT) community mental health team in Spalding has achieved the Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) Accreditation for Community Mental Health Teams (ACOMHS).

The accreditation was awarded by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, in recognition of the work undertaken by Christine Coupar, Service Manager and Anne Harris, Quality Assurance Lead for the Adult Community Health Division, alongside the college and community mental health teams over the last 12 months.

All nine of LPFT’s community mental health teams have been signed up to the ACOMHS accreditation programme.

The accreditation programme helps to assure and improve the quality of community mental health services for people with mental health problems and their carers.

The programme engages staff in a review, in which good practice and high quality care are recognised and teams receive support to identify and address areas for improvement.

Christine Coupar, Service Manager said: “We’re very proud of this achievement, which demonstrates the quality of care our community mental health team deliver to both service users and carers.

“Spalding will be the fifth of our teams accredited so far, and we are working with the remaining mental health teams towards their accreditation.

“This accreditation takes a lot of work to achieve and stands in place as a marker of the incredible care and compassion that goes into the daily work of our teams.”

Anne Harris, Quality Assurance Lead added, “The teams have achieved this accreditation from the Royal College of Psychiatrists against the 31 standards it sets in place. We will continue to build on this to improve our service, but in the meantime want to send massive congratulations to the team!”

This initiative from the Royal College of Psychiatrists Centre for Quality Improvement aims to help community mental health services focus on and improve quality of care and awards accreditation to services that meet sufficient standards.

Chris Higgins, Director of Operations said: “I am delighted that our community mental health team in Spalding has achieved this accreditation. They have worked very hard in the process and accreditations are reassuring for service users, carers and staff.”