Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin Talking Therapies

Collaboration with key partners sees the mobilisation and seamless integration of digital mental health therapies for Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin NHS Talking Therapies.

Overview

In September 2022 Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Talking Therapies, part of Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, was faced with a backlog of patients on wait lists across Step 3 interventions, including CBT, EMDR, and Counselling, with the backlog breaching the 18-week waiting time standards.

Some clients on the waitlist had complex needs and were more in line with a step 3.5+ service, improved joint working measures with other partner services and agencies assisted with some aspects of the waiting list, but the immediate requirement was to offer support to these clients too.

Approach

STW Talking Therapies were keen to explore all options available and invited applications through the tendering process from qualified providers. This included a requirement to deliver to a specific service specification, for the delivery of video, face-to-face therapy with appropriate safeguards and clinical governance.

As a result of its proven experience in Digital Mental Health Therapies, Xyla was successful in being chosen to deliver its full suite of services, including assessment, GSH, CBT, EMDR, IPT, DIT and counselling to Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin NHS Talking Therapies.

• Xyla worked in partnership with the service to understand the need, including the presenting problems Xyla would be working with, and understoof more about what measures and ADMS were used with this client group to ensure Xyla could offer an equitable service.
• Xyla worked through volumes of client referrals, which enabled it to effectively scale the workforce to ensure it could offer fast access to appointments and help reduce the waitlist.
• The broad range of services Xyla offers meant it was able to offer the correct intervention to the clients presenting problems. Regardless of intervention type, the speed and choice of appointment remained.
• With a zero commitment on usage Xyla was able to offer greater flexibility over how the service was used, and the flow of referrals was adapted in line with local demand.
• Xyla operates using the same systems, meaning integration was seamless, giving far more visibility over a client’s care and greater accuracy with data submissions.

Highlights