We are one of the most research-active Mental Health Trusts in England. Around 15,000 people have taken part in our research studies since we set up the research department in 2006 and we've generated approximately £25 million in income.
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If you would like to get involved in our research, please email: involvementinresearch@sussexpartnership.nhs.uk
Four new research clinics have been commissioned to support people with a range of mental health issues in Sussex.
The clinics, run by Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, will centre around providing help, advice and treatment for people with paranoia, neurodevelopmental conditions, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and young people with emerging mental health problems in schools.
Sussex Partnership provides specialist mental health and learning disability services across the south east, and has a one of the most research-active mental health Trusts in England, focusing on dementia, young people, psychosis, brain and body, mood and anxiety, learning disability, personality, emergency and complex care, and approaches to involvement and recovery.
The clinics create innovative environments that bring together researchers and clinicians to implement and evaluate the latest interventions.
Dr Mark Hayward, Director of Research and Development and Lead for the Sussex Voices Clinic at Sussex Partnership, said: “We are committed to offering treatments to our patients that are informed by the latest research evidence. Expanding our research clinics will support us in this respect. But we don’t want to stop there! We want to keep asking questions about how these interventions can be improved and offered to more patients. Our clinics will bring together researchers and clinicians to establish a virtuous cycle that will help us to continuously improve the services that we offer to our patients.”
The four new clinics will help bridge the gap that often exists between research and clinical practice, as well as working with service users and people with lived experience of mental health conditions to help inform the service, research and treatments.
The four new clinics are:
The Neurodivergent Brain-Body research clinic which will run within the existing clinical service, to provide and evaluate targeted interventions to improve both physical and mental health for neurodivergent people in Sussex. Neurodevelopmental conditions affect up to 10% of the population and include autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and Tourette syndrome, contributing to neurodivergence.
· The Mental Health Support Team Research Clinic will work within schools as this is the place where young people spend much of their time. Although there are evidence-based treatments for depression and anxiety in young people, most young people do not access these treatments for a variety of reasons. First steps will be to evaluate the effectiveness of this configuration in the school setting and then develop training to support children and young people with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), PTSD, Autism, and neurodiversity in this context.
· The SlowMo Research Clinic will implement SlowMo therapy in Sussex Partnership Assessment and Treatment and Recovery services. SlowMo is the first evidence-based (from the national SlowMo study) digital psychological therapy designed specifically for paranoia. This eight-week therapy is assisted by an app downloaded onto a mobile phone. Therapists work with the person to identify their worries, and then help them find ways to slow down and take a moment when they notice their worries. The clinic will work closely with the Sussex Recovery College to integrate the therapy into the curriculum and to promote early intervention and self-management.
· TThe PTSD Research Clinic will allow the Trust to improve outcomes for people with PTSD, by increasing access to evidence-informed treatments and also supporting researchers to learn what treatments work for whom. The experience of traumatic events is common in people supported by mental health services. A significant proportion of people meet criteria for PTSD, including Complex PTSD. It is likely that there will be an increase in people seeking help for PTSD, given the context of Covid-19 exacerbating pre-existing PTSD, and newly developed PTSD from Covid-related and other experiences.
These new clinics will join our other clinics which lead on research into voice-hearing, OCD, eating disorders and immunopsychiatry.
Is it possible to reduce the distress associated with auditory hallucinations (also known as hearing voices)?
Mark Hayward, clinical psychologist, R & D Director at SPFT and Director of Sussex Voices Clinic, has been selected as an expert in voice hearing experiences within the ASK programme
Other suggested questions to pose could be:
Can patients learn to accept their voice hearing experiences?
Will successful therapy remove the experience of distressing voices entirely?
Does the stigma around hearing voices influence the approach to therapy?
Mark will respond to these and other questions that are posted.
To put your questions Dr Hayward now see here: https://psychwire.com/ask/profiles/1e592te/mark-hayward
Depression is very common in people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, causing them distress as well as reducing their quality of life and that of their carers. Unfortunately, antidepressant drugs do not have clear effectiveness in these patients and it appears that the most commonly available psychological therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy or CBT are also not consistently useful.
The PATHFINDER study will investigate whether an adapted form of problem-solving therapy called Problem Adaptation Therapy (PATH), which has been reported to be helpful in the very early stages of dementia in an American university-based healthcare system, can be successfully applied in an NHS setting and with patients who are representative of those seen with dementia and depression in the NHS.
If you would like to talk to us about this study, please contact us
Can you help increase our understanding of the impact of coronavirus and changing of restrictions on our mental health?
We're supporting researchers from the University and Southern Health to ask people to complete a short, 15 minute questionnaire about the impact coronavirus has had on their lives and how people are coping with restrictions changing. They will use this information to support our understanding of how our mental health and wellbeing may be being affected by the pandemic but also what may be helpful for people.
Can you spare 15 minutes to help? Click on the link to the questionnaire for more information: bit.ly/PIOC19-3
When asked where you heard about this study, please select NHS Trust/Hospital
and on the following page please select ‘Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust’
For more information please contact us: askaboutresearch@sussexpartnership.nhs.uk
The CRQ study is seeking views of carers who are involved in supporting a loved one who has experience of psychosis
The study is aiming to carry out full testing of a new questionnaire that looks at the wellbeing of carers of those with psychosis and schizophrenia. It is a one off survey, that has been developed with the help of carers, and will take approximately 30 minutes to complete. The questions will explore how well carers have adjusted to their new caring role and whether they have found new purpose and meaning from their caring role.
Here's the link to the study: https://lancasteruni.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_29RSdszkpqCefbM
See more information on the study website: https://carerrecovery.wordpress.com
If you would like to talk to someone about the study, please email: askaboutresearch@sussexpartnership.nhs.uk
We’re looking for family members or friends who support someone living with dementia at home to test whether a new intervention (DREAMS START) can reduce the sleep difficulties experienced by people living with dementia.
If DREAMS START is helpful, we hope to make it available to everyone after the study.
We all use technology in our daily lives and so the 'Minder' study is looking at how we could harness it to monitor our health and assist the way we live.
‘Minder’ is a survey of your thoughts and perceptions of medical devices (technology which is used to diagnose, monitor, or treat a health condition). We are interested in hearing from everyone over 18, those who have and those who haven’t had experience with medical devices.
The online survey takes 10 minutes to complete. For more information and to take part please click here
When asked, “How did you hear about this survey?” Please select Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is delighted to be part of a study exploring a new and inexpensive dementia screening tool in the NHS to improve identification and diagnosis of dementia.
It’s is a quick and easy to use test of cognitive performance, using an iPad. Patients who have been referred to NHS memory clinics will be asked to take the ICA, as well as all of the other standard assessments taken as part of their appointment.
Dr Naji Tabet, Lead at our Dementia Research Unit and Centre for Dementia Studies, was filmed demonstrating the ADePT (Accelerating Dementia Pathway Technologies) tool on the BBC tech show Click which aired 15/05/2021. You can catch the episode on BBC iPlayer here and we are featured at about 21 minutes in).
Would you like to find out more? Please contact us by emailing: dementiaresearchunit@sussexpartnership.nhs.uk
SlowMo is an evidence-based digitally supported therapy for paranoia, which combines face-to-face brief therapy with interactive technology.
Using a mobile app, People learn to slow down for a moment using personalised safer thoughts which helps people feel safer in daily life.
Therapy was focussed on helping people to become aware of and change fast thinking habits which our previous research has shown to contribute to paranoia.
This eight week therapy is assisted by an app downloaded onto a mobile phone. Therapists work with the person to identify their worries, and then help them find ways to slow down and take a moment when they notice their worries. If people can use the app to slow down and take another look at the situation, they can often realise that things aren’t as bad as they first feared or find other ways to manage their worries.
The results indicated that the treatment was effective, in part, by helping people to slow down their thinking and worry less. SlowMo’s clinically worthwhile results, extremely high satisfaction from people receiving the therapy, strong therapy fidelity and innovative technology means it is suitable for rolling out in the NHS. It will be used in our new SlowMo Clinic to optimise and implement SlowMo so more people can benefit from this new therapy in the NHS.
Thanks to Angie Culham who took part in SlowMo and is working with Kathy Greenwood to help share the promising feedback.
