Please note: This website is best viewed in a modern browser like Chrome, Edge or Firefox. We no longer support Internet Explorer 11.

Home Treatment Team (Tower Hamlets)

The Home Treatment Service provides assessment and treatment to people who are experiencing a mental health emergency of a nature or severity that would otherwise require admission to inpatient services. They provide intensive support to people at the time they most need help, aiming to avoid further deterioration and alleviate distress as quickly as possible.

Where appropriate, the service provides an alternative to hospital admission, enabling people to receive treatment and care in their own home. By remaining in their own community, the disruption to their lives and the lives of those caring for them is minimised. The service is available 8.30am – 10.00pm seven days a week. Out of hours calls are diverted to the Department of Psychological Medicine (DoPM).

The service is for adults above 18 years of age and has a target of 24 hours to see service users referred.

The team works closely with the Crisis Intervention Service.

Address

Mile End Hospital, 3rd Floor Burdett House
3rd Floor Burdett House
London
E1 4DG
United Kingdom

Telephone number
0207 9093700

Referrals accepted from secondary mental health services.

The Home Treatment Team will assess people with any type of mental health condition which is causing serious distress or affecting their safety or the safety of others. They can provide therapeutic interventions to address symptoms of mental distress and support carers who play an important part in helping someone to overcome a crisis.

The service operates the crisis house model in partnership with Look Ahead who provide a crisis house service. This has been set up to as an alternative to hospital admission to offer support and to monitor people who are in distress or crisis.

The Home Treatment Team manages all admissions to the 10 crisis beds available in the crisis house. Three of the beds are for people with more longer term needs while seven are for people needing short term support.

The majority of people are looked after where they live. The team provide space to talk, listening to how the individual is feeling, what their thought processes are, their response to prescribed medication, talk through issues which may be causing alarm, worry or anxiety and working with them to develop strategies to stabilise and feel calmer and more in control.

The team will support the individual to move into a period of rehabilitation and recovery - focusing on the stressors which caused the crisis and looking at long term actions or activities which could help to prevent their mental deterioration and improve their overall wellbeing.

The team is made up of a range of health care clinicians including a consultant psychiatrist, medical staff, mental health nurses, therapists and health care assistants. They work with the individual, their family and their GP to support the family and manage the feelings and symptoms the service user is experiencing.