Nicola Crookes: Improving thanks to the work of St Andrew’s Healthcare
A Navy veteran reflects on the therapy she has received from a mental health charity as she battles her PTSD
The therapy takes her back to the trauma that is affecting her mental health. Her body shakes. Sometimes she vomits. She often cries. But the treatment, she says, “has saved my life”.
Nicola Crookes has suffered for most of her adult life with complex post-traumatic stress disorder. The condition develops from exposure to a series of traumatic events but her mental health spiralled out of control after she left the Royal Navy. She knows she will never be cured but has sought help from a community mental health service that provides outpatient clinics, specialist mental health assessments and treatment for war veterans
“The Veterans Complex Treatment Service saved my life,” says Nicola, 51. She had served in the Navy for five years but after she left her mental health deteriorated and she was referred to the Community Partnership Service run by Northampton-based St Andrew’s Healthcare in 2020.
“It was the most intense assessment I have ever undergone and I had this innate fear that no one was going to help me. I started my therapy during the lockdown every other week and, let me tell you, I would not be here now if it was not for the support and treatment I was given.”
Her treatment began during the first lockdown after Nicola had been referred to St Andrew’s Healthcare following an initial assessment by the Veteran’s Mental Health Transition, Intervention and Liaison Service.
Nicola, who lives in Lincoln, has undergone sensorimotor psychotherapy which she says can be physically exhausting at times but extremely helpful. “I am taken back to my place of trauma and I am made to physically release the trauma from my body. My whole body shakes and I have vomited before. We have identified where the trauma starts in my body and it works its way up. I violently shake sometimes and it can look like I am having some sort of a strange fit but once the shaking calms down, then come the tears. This has been a huge breakthrough as I have not been able to cry since I was a teenager.
“This therapy has saved my life and I am so grateful for it – I am literally rewiring my brain and for the first time in a long time I feel safe, well supported and like my life has a purpose. You can never be entirely cured of CPTS but I am learning how to navigate round certain triggers that, before getting the help I needed, could have made me become out of control.”
The Community Partnership Service is contracted to St Andrew’s Healthcare by NHS England. It has been assessed for the first time by the Care Quality Commission and has achieved a ‘Good’ rating. The CQC identified areas for improvement around the ‘Safe’ domain but even before the report had been published, improvements were under way to help to meet the CQC’s requirements.
The Community Partnership Service also works with criminal offenders after they have been sentenced, helping them to address mental health issues and behaviour in a bid to prevent them from reoffending. The CQC highlighted that working in partnership as “outstanding practice”.
“I am hugely proud of our team and the work we carry out,” says CPS clinical director Catherine Vichare. “We have helped thousands of people to better manage their mental health and I am thrilled that our hard work and commitment has been officially recognised.”
The CQC inspection took place in December, during which the regulator spoke to staff and service users as well as reviewing care records, policies >>
>> and procedures. The report highlighted the service’s staff, saying they were “discreet, respectful, and responsive when caring for service users”.
“For me, it does not get much better than that,” said Ms Vichare.
St Andrew’s Healthcare is a charity providing specialist mental health care. It works with NHS, voluntary, educational and research organisations to deliver in-patient and community mental healthcare services, education and research to improve the lives of people with complex mental health needs.
“I am thrilled at the rating and very proud of what Catherine and her team have achieved,” said chief executive Jess Lievesley. “As a charity, we are focusing on the quality of care we deliver and the Community Partnerships team is a shining example of exactly how a service should be run to support people with both common and complex mental health problems.”
St Andrew’s works to provide people with the right care as close to their home as possible, educating and training healthcare staff and students, providing early intervention assessment and support to reduce reoffending and the need for hospital care. It also provides outpatient services.
“We know all too well the impact the pandemic has had on many people and to have such a valuable service within our community that has now been officially recognised by the CQC should be reassuring to those who may feel they might need some extra help,” Mr Lievesley said.