What is personality disorder?
People with personality disorder have complex and enduring difficulties such as:
- recurrent deliberate self harm/self-defeating behaviours and/or attempted suicide
- anger or impulse control problems
- alcohol or substance abuse
- eating disturbances
- mood disorders
- difficulties in relating to other people
Having a personality disorder makes life difficult, so other mental health problems (such as depression, anxiety, or drug and alcohol problems) are also common.
How common are personality disorders?
- About 40-70% of people on a psychiatric ward will have a personality disorder.
- 30-40% of psychiatric patients being treated in the community by a psychiatric service will have a personality disorder.
- Around 10-30% of patients who see their general practitioner (GP) will have a personality disorder.
- Personality disorder accounts for between 4% and 13% of the general population.
Community Personality Disorder Service
The community personality disorder service (CPDS) is a new service which has been commissioned by Birmingham Primary Care Trusts to provide a pan-Birmingham (excluding Solihull) service for personality disordered service-users aged sixteen and over. It is based on a model of empowerment of and collaboration with existing teams in all sectors who are working with this group of service users. Our work is underpinned by the principles of accessibility, inclusivity and informed by service user and carer involvement.
Mission Statement
The CPDS is committed to offering hope to those suffering the long-term impact of childhood trauma and neglect, complex enduring difficulties and personality disorders. This includes service users, their carers and staff who work with them. Through working jointly with service users, carers and staff and targeting individual needs for support, therapy, education and training, the service offers inclusion, empowerment and therapeutic optimism while reducing stigma and promoting equity of service provision. The team includes doctors, psychotherapists, a psychologist and experts who have experience of both service user and carer roles. The latter support and develop the involvement of service users and carers in the planning and delivery of the service and the formation of service user and carer networks.
CPDS offers:
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Consultation: providing advice and support to teams and individuals on the management of service users with personality disorder and complex difficulties
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Joint assessment and co-working
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Therapy: group-based therapies using a variety of treatment approaches including analytic and cognitive-behavioural. Individual work is undertaken to support the group programmes
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Clinical supervision: supervision of teams working with this service user group to provide space for reflection as well as support in care planning and understanding of team dynamics
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Education and training (NHS, non-NHS and third sector)
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Service User and Carer Networks
- Development of a Managed Clinical Network to link up agencies working with personality disorder and complex difficulties and improve consistency and continuity of care
Delivery of the Knowledge and Understanding Frameworks (KUF) on Personality Disorder
http://www.personalitydisorder.org.uk/
CPDS was successful in bidding to deliver this training across Birmingham for health, non-health and third sector agencies. The Knowledge and Understanding Framework was commissioned by the Department of Health and provides training in Personality Disorder at different levels. The Awareness Level programme provides students with the underpinning knowledge and understanding required to work more effectively with service users with a diagnosis of personality disorder. It is made up of six online modules accessible through a virtual learning environment. The online materials are supported by three full days of training which offer an opportunity for discussions and reflections on the online learning and a space to consider how this can be translated into practice within the workplace.
