Publish date: 22 February 2024
US journal, “Psychiatric Services” (part of the American Psychiatric Association), published this article related to three year outcome data for Spring House, personality disorder hub, written by clinicians including Mersey Care’s Dr Simon Graham and Dr Ivan Sebalo. It’s an excellent piece of research which flags the impact the service has had on out of area treatments (OATs) and bed days.
Highlights include:
- Reorganising services for patients with borderline personality disorder can reduce OATs and local hospital admissions and cost savings may be used to establish more appropriate community based services
- People with unstable borderline personality disorder who are not functioning well enough to engage in evidence based psychotherapy may be able to effectively engage in psychological interventions that promote stabilisation
- Partial cost analysis showed that when startup and ongoing costs are considered, alongside savings achieved by avoiding hospitalisations for patients with borderline personality disorder, reorganisation of services appears to reduce overall health care costs.