Remote/Hybrid working
As we work nationally and internationally, we had been considering for a while how to get assessments and interventions to more families, with distance not being a barrier. With the advent of Covid-19, we fast tracked the development of this long-standing project. We did this by adapting our practice to be able to work with families remotely. Our first aim was to still be able to offer great quality assessment, leading to personalised formulations which informed evidence-based care plans. The second, facilitate evidence-based interventions where it is most suitable for the families: as we produce a comprehensive report with the rationale for the conclusions, our interventions can be implemented locally -and being a national service, we are happy to facilitate families getting treatment in their local area, sharing our report with the local therapist to avoid duplication of work- or also by our service, either remotely or face-to-face if deemed appropriate.
Please refer to the appropriate sections to learn more about how we do remote assessment and treatment, in the hyperlinks below:
Clinical work
Assessment
For assessment, we use Microsoft Teams. The process is straightforward: we send a link for the meeting to the family and we check everything is working the previous day.
Treatment
Our clinicians are skilled in a range of evidence-based therapeutic interventions, specifically adapted to the fact that the children are adopted or fostered or, in the case of the children with behavioural problems, the particular aspects that make them complex (e.g. neurodevelopmental problems, Limited Prosocial Emotions, etc).
Confidentiality
We would like to reassure parents/carers and referrers that the application we are using, Microsoft Teams, is hosted within our NHS Trust and subject to our usual information governance procedures and policies. It is a confidential way to discuss information. We also do not record the assessment or intervention sessions, unless there was a clinical indication and this would be discussed with the family and explicit permission given in advance to do so.
Training
We also offer webinars and virtual training opportunities and events to keep professionals updated with the latest evidence in our field. These will be published shortly.
Conclusions
Delivering clinical services using technology together with face to face work is changing mental health services and we keep on receiving excellent feedback from families. We are excited about being able to keep on implementing these innovations in the future, and this way help families at times that suit them, regardless of their location.