22 February 2021

We're piloting a new service to increase contact with patients in our Recovery and CAMHS services across all boroughs of the Trust. The pilot is initially running for six weeks.

We will all be aware of the impact that the pandemic and the social factors associated with this are having upon the mental health and wellbeing of our service users. Equally, the way that we deliver care has had to change, therefore affecting how and how frequently we are able to provide our usual clinical support.

Contact and Connect is a new offer available to our service users that provides additional telephone contact, aimed at reducing the impact of loneliness, isolation and loss of social networks.

We have recruited a team of Contact and Connect Support workers to offer regular telephone contact in addition to the support they receive from mental health services.

These phone calls will be an opportunity to discuss hobbies, interests, TV, books, sports – the types of conversations that lift our mood but can get lost in the pandemic. We want our service users to leave the phone call feeling like they’ve had a chat with a friend.

How to use Contact and Connect

  1. Consider your existing caseload and your waiting lists to identify service users who you consider would benefit from the service.
  2. Discuss the contact and connect service with your service users so they can consent to this referral, provide them with the service user information leaflet for more information and to support your conversation.
  3. Make a referral to the contact and connect hub by completing the attached referral form and return to nwbh.healthyknowsley@nhs.net
  4. Referrals will be triaged by the hub supervisor and should a referral not be suitable, this will be discussed with the referrer.

We are accepting referrals into the service from Monday 22 February with calls starting to service users from Monday 1 March. You can find out more about the process in our staff information leaflet. 

If you would like more information, please contact Susannah.Green@nwbh.nhs.uk