Service Detail

Lewisham Community Forensic Team based at Kirkdale Resource Centre, who care for people who have a permanent address in the London Borough of Lewisham and provide community-based assessment, treatment and care for people, aged 18-65.

A Forensic community team provide care for people with offending histories who, with appropriate care and treatment, pose a low risk to the public. They may also be subject to Home Office restrictions, Probation Orders or have judicial proceedings outstanding.

The team is made up of psychiatrists, community psychiatric nurses, social workers Psychologists and occupational therapists.

Who work closely with the police, the public protection unit and the local Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangement (MAPPA) team to support people in the community

Lewisham Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) Service is part of the wider SLaM DBT Service and is attached to Lewisham CMHTs. DBT is an evidence-based therapy for people whose difficulties with regulating emotions creates significant problems in their lives, and who have a suspected or confirmed diagnosis of Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder (EUPD)/Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).

In DBT, clients are taught skilful ways of managing emotional distress, solving problematic situations and improving their relationships. The DBT programme is delivered in a validating therapeutic environment which focuses on clients' strengths and sensitivities and enables them to develop effective strategies to build a 'life worth living'.

Clients have a DBT assessment and, if suitable, they are offered DBT Ôpre-treatment'. This prepares clients for the full DBT programme, which includes weekly individual and group DBT sessions and DBT phone coaching, and all DBT therapists attend DBT Consult. Clients work towards reducing and stopping all life-threatening behaviours, reducing therapy-interfering and quality of life-interfering behaviours, reducing trauma symptoms, increasing behavioural skills and achieving Ôlife worth living' goals.

Mental health professionals can make referrals by contacting a member of the Lewisham DBT Service to discuss cases in the first instance for screening, and then emailing the therapist they contacted with a completed Lewisham DBT Service referral form attached. NB: Currently, clients need to be under the care of a mental health team in Lewisham to access the Lewisham DBT Service.

The Early Intervention Service provides care for people 18-65 who live in the London Borough of Lewisham.

We provide support to individuals who first present with symptoms of Psychosis, and help prevent them reaching a crisis point.

We provide a National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)-concordant package of care to clients under the service. This includes prompt assessment, treatment and advice to improve long-term recovery.

We support individuals for up to 3 years.