Home Treatment Teams
Our Home Treatment Teams (HTT) are a community-based service set up to support you if you are experiencing severe mental health issues and require ‘crisis’ support. The main aim of our team is to help you manage and resolve your crisis through assessment and treatment in your home environment.
How we can help
We will work closely with you, your family and carers, including your social networks to provide intensive support and care, helping you to draw on your own strengths and to help you learn different ways of improving and maintaining your mental wellbeing.
Where appropriate, we will also help you to access other services that could be relevant to your care (such as the Community Mental Health Team, Voluntary Sector services), as well as reviewing your current medications and helping with social issues.
Where we will see you
We operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We offer home visits during the day time and evening. There is a night practitioner available for telephone advice and guidance outside of these hours. Our input will be short term (an average of 2-3 weeks), intensive (as many as 2-3 visits per day dependent on your needs) and is flexible to meet your current difficulties.
Our aim will be to see you at home. However, if it is more convenient for you to be seen elsewhere we can accommodate this request.
Some of the people we see may need admission to hospital but we will try to maintain your care at home for as long as possible. It is recognised that people recover more quickly if treated at home in familiar surroundings, with friends and family close by.
Why we are here
Our primary aim is based on the recognition that people recover more quickly if treated at home in familiar surroundings, with friends and family close by.
Often individuals accessing home treatment do so as a step-up in care from their usual community team or step-down following a period of care in a psychiatric hospital. Sometimes, individuals will not have had contact with mental health services previously or not for some-time. The Home Treatment Team is likely to meet with you initially, following your contact with one of our triage and assessment teams.
However you access the Home Treatment Team, we will work collaboratively with you and the people you identify to understand the current factors that have led to a crisis and to support you to meet the goals you identify.
Who you will see
We are a multi-disciplinary team including practitioners who are registered nurses, doctors, a social worker, occupational therapist and psychologist, alongside support workers and peer support workers. Our teams are supported by administrators.
During an episode of care you will see varying members of our team.
We will try to maintain continuity of three to five practitioners for core visits, but this may not always be possible (for example, if you are being supported with your medication at regular points in the day).
Family, friend and carer support
To help with your recovery it is important to work closely with other people who support you.
We offer people involved in your care the opportunity to discuss their worries in relation to their role supporting you.
We can make a referral for a carer’s assessment and provide information about local support services. Please ask if you would like this support.