A PROJECT designed to enable people with a learning disability to access mainstream NHS psychological therapies more easily has been shortlisted for a national award.

Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust has been shortlisted in the ‘Diversity and Equality in Service Delivery’ category of the 2016 Positive Practice in Mental Health Awards.

The project, which is still ongoing, aims to increase the number of people with learning disabilities accessing - and completing – a course of the trust’s mainstream psychological therapy services for mild to moderate mental health illnesses, such as depression and anxiety. The forms which GPs use to refer people to the talking therapies have been amended to flag up if a person has learning disabilities.

That allows staff to prepare and adapt their therapy sessions. Appointment letters and initial screenings have been altered to help people with learning disabilities, and joint group therapy sessions between staff from the talking therapies service and the learning disabilities teams are now in place.

The trust’s Dr Karen Dodd said: “We are delighted to have been shortlisted for this award. Estimates show that 20 per cent to 40 per cent of people with learning disabilities will experience some form of mental illness in their life.

“This nomination represents the work we have put in so people with learning disabilities can have better access to, as well as a better chance of completing, the therapies which will improve their mental wellbeing.

“Year on year, more people are completing their programme of recovery since the project began. Recovery rates for people with learning disabilities completing their treatment have also almost doubled from 25 per cent to 46 per cent – bringing them in line with the national average for talking therapies in general.”

The awards ceremony will take place at Woking’s HG Wells Centre, on Thursday, October 13.