New ‘Talk Wandsworth’ service awarded to leading south London mental health trust

The three-year contract will provide the Wandsworth Integrated Talking Therapies Service which will offer a broad range of support for people experiencing mild mental health conditions such as anxiety, low mood and stress.

The new service will aim to help over 25,000 people in Wandsworth by 2019 by making it easier for local residents, and communities, who could benefit from expert help but have not traditionally accessed support for mental health problems in the past.

1 in 4 people will experience a mental illness at some point in their life and ensuring people have access to the right support and advice when they need it is at the heart of Talk Wandsworth’s approach. People can either access the service directly by getting in touch themselves or through speaking to their GP.

The new service will have a wide presence across Wandsworth providing face-to-face counselling in a range of venues as part of this service. They have partnered with The Awareness Centre, one of the leading providers of counselling and psychotherapy in London, who works directly with a wide range of groups to offer tailor-made services.

To make sure the service is accessible as possible Talk Wandsworth will deliver the latest innovative online therapy options including SilverCloud, Ieso and Skype. This 24/7 technology will make it easier for people to choose what type of support they want, when they want it and how they would like this to take place.

SWLSTG Chief Executive David Bradley said “In developing Talk Wandsworth we worked with closely with local community groups to understand how we could make our services more accessible. As a result I am pleased that from April 2017 we will be able to offer a wide range of ways to receive expert help whether through face-to-face counselling, 24/7 self-help online or over the phone.

We are very proud to be able to provide an innovative service like Talk Wandsworth that will help thousands of people to get easy access to the help they need to get better”.