The Maudsley Charity commits more than £1.45m of funding to improve NHS mental health care

The Maudsley Charity, which supports the work of South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, announces funding for six projects that aim to support expert clinicians and researchers to trial and deliver new services for NHS patients.  

The Maudsley Charity is the largest NHS mental health charity in the UK and exists to support patients, carers, clinical teams and scientists working towards improving mental health. 

Talking about the funding commitment, Maudsley Charity Chief Executive, Rebecca Gray said:

“We’re delighted to have funded these exciting projects, the funding will provide NHS and university teams with the opportunity to develop new and improved approaches to care and treatment.  

“Our ambition is for the experience and learning gained here to have an impact nationally as well as locally. This funding of more than £1.45m demonstrates our commitment to accelerate changes in clinical care and improve the lives of people who experience mental illness.” 

The commitment will fund: 

A mobile app for people with autism  and anxiety 

A clinical team led by the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, working with the research charity Autistica, will enable further development of a mobile app to support autistic people manage anxiety, the most common treatable mental health condition in autism,  experienced by the 40% of the 700,000 autistic people in the UK. (source: NAS)  Read more.

Quote from Professor Emily Siminoff, Professor of Child Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London:  

“We are delighted to receive this funding from the Maudsley Charity.  Autistic people rate better management of their mental health as a top priority, but there are insufficient clinical services to meet their needs.  In response to this, the initial version of the app, launched in the summer of 2018, was very positively received by autistic people and their families and caregivers.   

“The new work funded by the Maudsley Charity will allow us to significantly enhance the capabilities of the app to extend and personalise the range of management strategies available.  We believe this will play an important part in providing universal access to evidence-based interventions for autistic people.” 

 

A project that supports people with autism experiencing eating disorders  

Working together with NHS patients, staff from South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, will develop accessible and tailored treatment for patients with a diagnosis of Autism and an eating disorder, improving clinical outcomes and developing national guidance for NHS practice, there are currently no guidelines for this patient group.  Read more

Quote from Professor Kate Tchanturia, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London: 

“We are delighted to have been offered funding for this project. We hope this funding will change the lives of many service users, carers and clinicians. There are currently no guidelines or recommendations for this patient group, and we are pleased, thanks to the Maudsley Charity funding, to be able to develop treatment to support them.”  

 

Supporting young people in care 

A programme delivered by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust clinicians, working with children and young people who have been in local authority care. The project will identify and support people experiencing anxiety, low mood or stress – helping them to learn coping techniques and skills. Funding for the project will also be used to teach NHS clinicians and local authority staff the skills to use this care model in their daily work, equipping staff with new clinical support skills.  Read more

Quote from Dr Irene Sclare, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust:  

“This funding will make a genuine difference to the lives of young people in London who are care leavers (people who have been in foster care or residential care).  Leaving care can often be a challenging and daunting time and this funding of £180,000 from the Maudsley Charity will enable us to pilot and evaluate a project to help young people experiencing anxiety, low mood and stress learn skills and techniques to cope. Importantly the funding will also help us share the learning with other NHS and social care staff.”

 

Earlier access to effective treatment  for patients with psychosis 

In 25% of patients with psychosis, standard treatment with antipsychotic medication is ineffective. The only treatment that can help these patients is a medication called Clozapine. However, there is often a delay of several years before patients can access Clozapine treatment.  

Funding this project will enable clinicians at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and the Institute of Psychiatry,Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London to evaluate a new approach designed to substantially reduce this delay, allowing patients to access effective treatment sooner. If successful, this approach is likely to change the way that people with ‘treatment resistant’ psychosis are treated.  Read more

Speaking about the funding Professor Philip McGuire, Head of Psychosis Studies, King’s College London said:

“We already have effective treatments for psychosis, but there are often delays before patients are given the medication that is best for them. We are evaluating this new approach that should make it easier for patients to get the right treatment at the right time.” 

 

Body worn camera study 

Body worn cameras allow NHS staff and patients on inpatient wards to request a situation to be filmed. The use of body worn cameras is being trialled in a number of mental health trusts in the UK. This project, led by researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London and clinicians at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust will undertake the largest study to date of NHS staff and patient attitudes to the potential use of body worn cameras and explore the ethical and therapeutic considerations of their use in NHS healthcare settings.  Read more

Quote from Prof. Alan Simpson, Professor of Mental Health Nursing, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London: 

“Body worn cameras are beginning to be used in inpatient mental health units but there has been very little research into how service users and staff feel about their use. This funding from Maudsley Charity will enable us to investigate some of the ethical and therapeutic issues in an area where relationships and power dynamics are important and sensitive considerations. We hope this will inform policy development and future research on this topic.” 

 

Supporting mental health in young people with Epilepsy  

Around 80,00* young people in the UK have epilepsy, they also have disproportionately more mental health problems than other young people.  This project led by researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, working with NHS clinicians across South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, will develop new interventions to screen young people with epilepsy for mental health conditions, and provide them with better care. (*neural.org).  Read more

Quote from Prof. Mark Richarsdson, Vice Dean for Neuroscience at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London:  

“We are delighted to receive funding to develop new tools and interventions for mental health difficulties and behavioural problems in young people with epilepsy. We hope that our project will enable clinicians treating young people with epilepsy to identify mental health difficulties and behavioural problems much more easily, and to offer effective treatment. We believe that this funding from the Maudsley Charity will enable us to fundamentally improve the life trajectory of young people with epilepsy”. 

 

About  

The funding is the largest financial commitment by any NHS mental health charity in 2019. In 2018 the Maudsley Charity funded 98 projects from individual patient welfare grants to cutting edge research and service development, totalling more than £1.7m of direct investment in NHS patient care, science and innovation.  

Five of the projects funded in this announcement were funded through our latest innovation and improvement round, a competitive process, the sixth – Supporting mental health in young people with epilepsy, was funded through a legacy donation to Maudsley Charity for use in research.  

 

Maudsley Charity

The Maudsley Charity an independent NHS charity working with South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London.  The Maudsley Charity is here to promote positive change in the world of mental health.  

We support innovation, research and service improvement, and raise public awareness and understanding. We support patients and families, clinical care teams and scientists who are working towards the common goal of improving mental health. 

Working closely with South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, which provides the UK’s widest range of mental health services, and the world-renowned Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, we help fund ground-breaking neurological and mental health research, service improvements and therapeutic programmes.  

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust  

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust is a large and complex multi-site provider of mental health services – providing the widest range of NHS mental health services in the UK. We aim to make a difference to lives by seeking excellence in all areas of mental health and wellbeing.  

We also provide substance misuse services for people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol. Our 4,800 staff serve a local population of 1.3 million people. We offer more than 230 services including inpatient wards, outpatient and community services. We provide inpatient care for approximately 3,900 people each year and we treat more than 67,000 patients in the community in Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham and Croydon. 

As well as serving the communities of south London, we provide more than 20 specialist services for children and adults across the UK including perinatal services, eating disorders, psychosis and autism.  www.slam.nhs.uk

King’s College London and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience 

King’s College London is one of the top 10 UK universities in the world (QS World University Rankings, 2018/19) and is among the oldest universities in England. King’s has an outstanding reputation for world-class teaching and cutting-edge research.  Since our foundation, King’s students and staff have dedicated themselves in the service of society. King’s will continue to focus on world-leading education, research and service, and will have an increasingly proactive role to play in a more interconnected, complex world.   www.kcl.ac.uk   

The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London is the premier centre for mental health and related neurosciences research in Europe. It produces more highly cited publications in psychiatry and mental health than any other university in the world (Scopus, 2016), with 31 of the most highly cited scientists in this field. World-leading research from the IoPPN has made, and continues to make, an impact on how we understand, prevent and treat mental illness and other conditions that affect the brain.  www.kcl.ac.uk/ioppn