A DEDICATED service which helps people with mental health illnesses in Solihull has been handed a top award.
Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust’s (BSMHFT) Early Intervention service has been crowned this year’s Team of the Year (work-age adults) by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
In an online award ceremony – hosted by Royal College of Psychiatrists’s president Dr Adrian James – Solihull Early Intervention Service was described as ‘a dedicated team with compassion, innovation and ambition at its core’.
The service works with 120 Silhillians aged 14 to 65 who have experienced a first episode in psychosis.
The team assists recovery, reduces any distress and helps people to understand what is happening to them so that they can manage their illness.
The 26 dedicated people make up the team which includes community psychiatric nurses, psychologists, occupational therapists and art therapist who work Maple Leaf Centre and in people’s homes.
The award was accepted by BSMHFT’s consultant psychiatrist Erin Tuner, on behalf of the Solihull Early Intervention team.
She said: “I’ve worked with so many teams throughout my career who are really good but I have to say that this team has got something really special.
“If I had to use three words to describe the team it would be compassion, dedication and ambition.
“Compassion not only to patients and their families but to each other, dedication exemplified through the Covid-19 pandemic and their commitment to going the extra mile and ambition because as a team we never sit on our laurels.
“We are always looking for ways to improve our service to give the very best to our patients.”
In this year’s awards there were 17 categories, with Solihull Early Intervention Service up against Isle of Wight’s Mental health Intensive Support Team and Cheshire And Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust in their Team of the Year (work-age adults) category.
