Our Enhanced Community Mental Health Teams for Older Adults give community support to people over 65 years of age who have many kinds of mental health issues, such as anxiety, depression, hearing voices, and dementia.
We have three ECMH teams that cover different areas.
Our Sandwell team cover the six towns of Sandwell; Rowley Regis, Smethwick, Oldbury, Tipton, Wednesbury and West Bromwich. The team is sub divided to cover the North and South of the borough.
We also have a team covering the Dudley area and a team covering the Walsall area.
When we feel that someone would benefit from our service, we meet with them to find out their mental health needs. Based on this meeting we make a treatment plan, which outlines the support we can provide. The treatment plan can be changed to fit as time goes on.
Our aim is to give people the support to live well in the community. We can help people with their medication and give advice on how someone can manage their own mental health needs. We can support someone to carry on with parts of their daily living like self-care, home tasks, and leisure activities. We give one-on-one talking therapy sessions for such things as anxiety management and depression. We are also able to monitor and support patients with enduring mental health problems such as psychosis.
We normally spend time with people in their own homes for one-on-one sessions, and at various places in the community for group work.
What about carers and families?
Also, part of our role is to support carers. Where there is an acute mental health issue, we offer carer support as part of the treatment plan. When someone’s mental health is stable and the carer is in need of continued support, we can help the carer get in touch with the specialist carer support team for older adults
The Team
Our team has two elements to it’s function.
- Rapid Response team are able to provide rapid assessment and intensive treatment for patients at home with an aim to avoid admission to hospital or facilitate early and successful discharge from hospital.
- Treatment team provides assessment and longer term treatment and support, often for patients with more chronic conditions or who do not require intensive support.
Working in our teams we have Community Psychiatric Nurses, Occupational Therapists, Psychologist, Occupational Therapy Technical Instructors, and Support and Recovery Time Workers. We also work closely with Consultant Psychiatrists and their medical teams which means we are more able to meet someone’s needs.
All referrals from GP’s and mental health professionals are considered by our duty nurse. The duty nurse will triage the referral and decide which professional is most appropriate to complete a full assessment, and the time scale for that assessment. This will depend on the patients’ needs and presenting risks.
You can be referred to our service via your G.P or in some instances another mental health professional. The wider team will discuss your individual case and assign you to a professional within the team who we feel can best help you.
Sandwell:
7 days a week, 8am to 4pm
Edward Street Hospital
Edwards Street
West Bromwich
B70 8NL
Tel: 0121 612 8319
Dudley:
Black Country Healthcare Foundation Trust
2nd Floor,
Trafalgar House,
47-49 King St
Dudley
DY2 8PS
Tel: 01384 314200
Email: bchft.adminecmhtopdudley@nhs.net
Walsall:
7 days a week, 9am to 5pm
Blakenall Village Centre
Thames Road
Blakenall
Walsall
WS3 1LZ
Tel: 01922 608002
Letter about change in address and telephone can be downloaded on following link