About us
We are an NHS organisation that works closely with other health and social care providers across Devon and Torbay to support people with mental health and learning disability needs.
Our mission is to become a centre of excellence and expertise in the field of mental health and learning disability within the next five years.
Our aim is to deliver consistently high quality, recovery-focused care and treatment and to ensure our services are driven by the voices of the people who use them. Many of our services have received national and international recognition.
We aim to challenge discrimination and stigma and champion recovery, inclusion and wellbeing. We also strive for mental health and learning disability services to be understood and valued in the same way as physical health services.
We have a budget of £130m a year and employ around 2,500 staff. During the course of a year we receive 64,000 referrals and we are supporting around 18,000 people at any one time – and contacting 900 people a day.
Our services
We provide a wide range of mental health and learning disability services, including those for:
- Adults with mental health needs
- Older people with mental health needs
- People with a learning disability.
Our teams include community and hospital teams, as well as a number of teams providing services for people with more specific needs.
They include:
- Community mental health teams across Devon and Torbay for adults and older people (we do not provide child and adolescent services)
- Inpatient (hospital) care for adults and older people in Exeter, Torbay and Barnstaple
- A Dementia Wellbeing Service in Bristol
- Devon Memory Clinics at the RD&E, Torbay Hospital and North Devon District Hospital
- A liaison psychiatry service supporting people with mental health needs at the RD&E, Torbay Hospital and North Devon District Hospital
- A Depression and Anxiety Service (DAS) for people who are low in mood or feeling stressed, anxious or depressed
- A county-wide perinatal mental health service for pregnant women and new mothers who are concerned about their mental wellbeing
- A drug and alcohol service (in Torbay)
- An assessment and diagnosis service for autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
- A range of secure services provided at Langdon in Dawlish – which generally support people who have come into contact with the criminal justice system
- The Haldon eating disorder service in Exeter, which provides residential care and treatment for people with severe disorders, such as anorexia nervosa
- The West of England Specialist Gender Identity Clinic, for people with issues around their gender
- Working closely with Devon and Cornwall Police we provide Street Triage and Liaison and Diversion services to ensure that people with mental health and learning disability needs get the support they need when they come into contact with the police or wider criminal justice system.
How we work
At least one in four of us is likely to have some form of mental health need at some point in our lives.
We work together with other NHS organisations, local authorities, the voluntary sector, the people who use our services and their families and carers to deliver services that focus on personal recovery, give people a sense of hope and opportunity and promote wellbeing and independence.
We work with our partners to provide supported accommodation, vocational rehabilitation and employment opportunities to help people learn skills, get back to work and move towards living independently. Our frontline teams include psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, social workers, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and support workers. We are increasingly striving to recruit people who have personal experience of mental health and learning disability issues as peer support workers.
Supporting people
The first step in supporting someone is usually an assessment – this will help us to establish a person’s needs and the type of support that they are likely to require. The assessment can be followed by a variety of different types of care and treatment.
The vast majority of people we support receive their care and treatment in the community – frequently in their own homes. We have community teams across Devon and Torbay. They help people get the support they need as early as possible.
A small number of people may need a short spell of hospital care to support their recovery if they become very unwell. We have reduced our reliance on hospital services over the last few years but still have a network of hospital wards across the county supporting adults, older people, people with a learning disability and people with dementia.
An even smaller number of people will have severe and enduring needs that require long-term care and support. Occasionally, people may require very specialist hospital care outside the county, but this only happens when it is absolutely necessary. We are working hard to provide as many services as we can here in Devon.
We have specialist Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Teams that support people who require urgent care and support. Increasingly, we are working with our colleagues in the county’s general hospitals to integrate physical health services with the services that we provide for people with mental health and learning disability needs.
Further information
For more information about mental health conditions and medication, visit: www.choiceandmedication.org.uk/devon/
For more information about our services and self-help resources, please visit our website at www.dpt.nhs.uk