Posted on: 27 September 2021
Rash Patel, Head of Employment and Volunteer Services at CNWL was invited to the European IPS conference in Reykjavik, Iceland. Representatives from 15 European nations got together to discuss the successes and challenges in delivering IPS services.
IPS stands for Individual Placement and Support, it is a framework that helps people with mental health illnesses into paid employment. In 2004 CNWL was one of the first NHS Trusts in the country to use this model to support mental health patients into paid employment.
Since then CNWL has been recognised as a leader in delivering effective IPS services by the Centre for Mental Health, which included CNWL in their IPS Centre of Excellence programme.
Rash said, “I attend the conference to share the best practice and help the wider IPS expansion as part of the NHS’ Long Term Plan. A number of European countries and staff who present had visited CNWL when they were starting out on their IPS journey. All the presentations were extremely inspiring and I’m proud of the role CNWL had in helping other countries create their IPS services.”
The IPS European meeting was due to take place in March 2020 but was rescheduled because of the pandemic.
The meeting was opened by Dr Bob Drake who had co-developed the IPS framework along with Deborah Becker in the early 1990s.
For more information on CNWLs Employment Services click here.
CNWL patients can ask their healthcare lead or psychologist for a referral to Employment Services.