Coronavirus - changes to this service

Due to the ongoing Coronavirus outbreak we have made changes to the way we are delivering this service.

To find out more about the changes to the Specialist Psychotherapy Service please visit shsc.nhs.uk/coronavirus

The Specialist Psychotherapy Service offers treatment, consultation and advice to adults aged 18 and over who are experiencing complex mental health difficulties that have not responded to previous treatment. 

We are a tertiary service which means we accept referrals from a range of sources and professionals, including SPA, primary care (GPs or IAPT) and secondary care (Recovery Service).

We also provide specialist education and training to both universities in Sheffield, and actively take part in research projects.

The Specialist Psychotherapy Service is split into two specialist teams, the Mood, Anxiety and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Psychotherapy Service (MAPPS) and the Personality/Complex Trauma Team.

Mood, Anxiety and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Psychotherapy Service (MAPPS)

This team works with people who are experiencing long-term or recurrent problems related to symptoms that are generally described as:

  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
  • Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)
  • Anxiety Disorders (for example Social Anxiety and Generalised Anxiety Disorder)
  • Depression

The people we support may be experiencing difficulties in more than one of these areas and will have tried other first line treatments such as therapy, counselling or medication at least once before being referred to us.

We also provide clinical supervision, consultation on complex cases and training to other professionals.

Personality/Complex Trauma Team

This team offers direct psychotherapy to service users living with a diagnosis or traits of Emotionally Unstable or Borderline Personality Disorder, and/or Complex Trauma. We offer advice and consultation to other services and teams in the Trust, as well as contributing to postgraduate training programmes.

Waiting times

Once you have been assessed by the team as being likely to benefit from treatment, you will be placed on our waiting list.

Our waiting time from referral to assessment is approximately 18 weeks. Once you have been assessed, there will be a further wait for treatment. 

How is the service accessed?

We accept referrals from healthcare professionals working in primary and secondary services in Sheffield.

If you have a query about making a referral you can call us on 0114 2716920.

You can take a look at our service eligibility and selection criteria by clicking here.

Frequently asked questions

We have put together answers to some frequently asked questions that we hope will help you before or after your appointment. 

The answers apply to both MAPPS and the Personality/Complex Trauma Team.  

Who do I speak to if I am experiencing difficulties with the therapy process?

If you are experiencing difficulties with the therapy process, it may feel uncomfortable to discuss this with your therapist. However, we encourage you to raise these difficulties with your therapist during one of the regular therapy review sessions. If this is not possible we would encourage you to speak to the leads of the services.

How is my information stored and kept confidential?

We take clinical notes which are stored on a secure electronic system. Your information will be kept confidential to those who are involved in your care. This would only change if we are concerned about your safety or the safety of others, and this is something we would discuss with you. You can find out more by clicking here.

If you have any concerns about the storage or confidentiality of your information, or about maintaining privacy when contacting our service from your home, please talk to the service or the clinician you are seeing. 

How do I give feedback or make a complaint?

Any feedback you can share about your experience using our service is invaluable in helping us make improvements.

If you have any feedback you would like to share please speak to your clinician who can support you. 

You can also leave anonymous feedback via Care Opinion below. 

Self help and information resources

If you are on our waiting list for the Personality/Complex Trauma Team you might find the resources below helpful while you are waiting for your appointment.

If you would like printed copies of this information posted out, please let us know.

Information on Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) / Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder (EUPD)

Information on therapies

If you are on our waiting list, you should have had the chance to discuss which therapy approaches might be beneficial. See below for more information on different types of therapy:

Self-help information

Self-help for various mental-health and wellbeing difficulties, including low mood, anxiety, stress, low self-esteem and sleep:

Help and information on suicidal thoughts and feelings:

Help and information on self-harm:

Local support and services

Audio, visual or interactive information

If you prefer video rather than written information, MIND provides videos embedded within their articles (see the MIND links in the sections above).

MIND also have more videos on their YouTube channel.

MIND also provide information on interactive, online resources here.

Mental health audio guides can also be found via the NHS. 

Information in languages other than English

Information on mental health difficulties and self-help in a variety of languages can be found via:
 

Mental heath apps

Coronavirus survey

The Coronavirus pandemic has brought a lot of changes to our lives, and it has also meant we've had to make some temporary changes to the way we provide our support

We carried out a survey of our service users to ask about your experience during the pandemic to find out what we've done well and where we can make improvements.

You can take a look at the results of the survey for Specialist Psychotherapy Service's Mood Team by clicking here.

Your questionnaires (OQ-45) - Improving psychological care

The questionnaires you complete help the service to see how effective psychological therapy is. We are planning to put this information (for all our patients) together so that we can look for patterns. We hope that this will help us to work out:

  • Which therapy is best for which problems?
  • How many appointments are needed for therapy to work?
  • When therapy works, how long do the effects last for?

Knowing the answers to these questions would help the service to plan therapy with future people accessing therapy.

We now have enough information to begin looking at patterns. We have teamed up with researchers from the University of Sheffield who are specially trained to analyse such information.

One researcher will be required to access mental health notes for everyone who has accessed therapy here over the past 10 years.

No information that can identify you (i.e. names, NHS number etc.) will be taken from the service. We therefore can ensure that your anonymity will be maintained. 

If you would prefer to opt-out of this evaluation programme, then please email Chris.Gaskell@shsc.nhs.uk
 

Sharing your feedback on Care Opinion

Care Opinion is an independent organisation that gives you the chance share your experience of using our services, to help us make changes that benefit everyone.

We want you to share honest feedback about our services. Good or bad we want to hear what you think.

You can choose how much detail you want to go into about your personal story, but if there’s anything we could improve on we want to know.

You can give feedback by filling in the form below.