Community Mental Health Team (Older Adults)

The Older Adult Community Mental Health Team (OA CMHT) supports people over the age of 65 with severe and enduring mental health needs, also for those under 65 with an early onset Dementia. We can provide assessment, diagnosis, treatment, education and create individualised care planning.

The main functions of the service are:

• Care, support and treatment for service users with dementia where the presentation is complex and an active intervention plan is indicated
• Care, support and treatment for service users with complex functional mental illness, where treatment in primary care has been initiated and their mental health remains an issue of concern and an active intervention plan is indicated
• Provision of care co-ordination under Care Programme Approach
• S117 Aftercare annual reviews
• Mental health medication initiation and monitoring including antipsychotics under the Shared Care protocol
• To maximise the potential of service users using a recovery focussed model of care.

The team comprises of:

• Community mental health nurses
• Social workers (not integrated into the team)
• Approved mental health professionals (not integrated into the team)
• Occupational therapists
• Psychiatrists
• Clinical psychologist
• Support worker
• Administration staff

When a person is referred to the team the aim is to provide a seamless service and support treatment and recovery, utilising the most appropriate professional/s whose role is to conduct a full Health and Social Needs Assessment, take on the role of Care Coordinator (whose role it is to co-ordinate the necessary range of services) and be the primary point of contact for the service user and their carer.

If the person requires additional support from other members of the team this can be arranged through the Care Coordinator. The team works closely with the Rapid Intervention and Treatment team (RITT) and Memory Assessment Service (MAS).  The team also has close links with Age UK and with the private and voluntary sector.

Referrals into Service

Referrals are made via GPs in order to ensure that any physical health issues are addressed or ruled out before mental health support is requested. These are assessed by the Single Point of Access( SPoA). All referrals are triaged and processed by the SpoA team to ensure appropriateness of referrals and allocation to the correct team.

Referrals can also be received directly from other teams such as the Memory Assessment Service, Home Treatment Team, the Adult Team, Inpatients and out of area teams and are assessed to see if it is appropriate then CMHT link in directly with the referrer.

Referrals can also be made via the Older Adult Mental Health Liaison Service based within the physical health hospitals in the area including Blackpool Teaching Hospital and Royal Preston.

CMHT also accept direct referral back into service for care co-ordination for any Service User that is under 117 review or remains under the 12 months of the Shared Care Protocol for physical health.

As a secondary mental health service we are not able to accept self-referral from service users or carers.