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Haringey Complex PTSD Pathway
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The Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Treatment Pathway offer services to people who are currently experiencing symptoms associated with complex PTSD (also referred to as cPTSD or type 2 PTSD). Many people have experiences of trauma, and may have mental health difficulties, however, the cPTSD service specifically offers support to those who are experiencing complex PTSD symptoms linked to the trauma. Not everyone who has experienced trauma has PTSD or complex PTSD symptoms.
PTSD is sometimes categorised as type 1 or type 2 PTSD. Type 1 PTSD usually refers to a single incident or a series of separate events. Type 2 or complex PTSD refers to repeated and prolonged incidences of trauma which has then led to PTSD symptoms. Many people with a type 1 PTSD diagnosis will be helped by Haringey talking therapies and wellbeing services that are based in community settings. However, if you have more complex PTSD (type 2 PTSD) you may benefit from the complex PTSD pathway’s multi-professional help for a period of time.
Patients who are supported by the complex PTSD pathway often describe struggling with the following:
- Experiences of extreme and on-going trauma events
- Re-experiencing of traumatic events, as if it is happening again or recurring dreams about the trauma even, often leaving the person feeling fearful
- Avoiding anything which reminds the person of the traumatic events
- A sense of current threat, shown by hypervigilance, a startle reaction or outbursts of anger
- Difficulties sleeping
- Difficulties concentrating
- This service is for people who live in the borough of Haringey and are over the age of 18.
- Borough(s): Haringey
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Address:
St Ann’s Hospital, London, N15 3TH
- Phone number: 020 8213 7489
Who is this service for?
PTSD, Complex PTSD
How to access this service
We accept referrals from GPs and mental health professionals. The Treatment programme is based at St Ann’s Hospital.
If you feel you would benefit from our service, speak to your GP or other appropriate professional about a referral to us. Your GP will refer you to the relevant Locality Team within Haringey who can then connect you to our service.
What to expect
Assessment – what to expect
After referral we offer an assessment to explore your difficulties and experiences at length. We recognise that meeting a new person and speaking about painful life experiences and struggles can be difficult. For this reason, we will only ask you to go into details that are essential to assessment and will not expect you to describe any trauma events in full details as we understand this can be difficult and is not needed at the assessment stage.
Foremost, we aim to be compassionate and thoughtful during the assessment process and make all decisions about the next steps for your treatment collaboratively. The assessor(s) will also explore your ideas around motivation, and discuss what commitment, and engagement will be required of you to benefit from treatment. These are important areas of discussion to see if you are ready to start treatment and begin taking steps to make changes.
The assessment may be conducted by different professionals, such as a Community Psychiatric Nurse (CPN), Social Worker, Occupational Therapist, Psychiatrist and/or Psychologist. Sometimes we offer joint assessments to help us better understand people’s difficulties from multiple perspectives.
At the end of the assessment process, options and recommendations are presented and a decision is made on the best course of treatment.
Treatment
The Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (cPTSD) treatment pathway provides a phased treatment programme with a range of options for service users presenting with complex and comorbid PTSD symptoms.
Treatment modules are offered in phases and include:- A one-off welcome workshop
- An initial complex PSTD education and symptom management skills group
- Further groups in the pathway can also be joined after attending the initial psychoeducation and skills group. These may include the STAIR (Skills Training in Affective and Interpersonal Regulation) group, Tree of Life group and yoga group.
- A PTSD peer-led support group with the charity MIND in Haringey can also be accessed following the attendance of the first phase of treatment
- Individual trauma-focused
- Community Engagement support to help connect with activities and organisations in the community
We recognise that any treatment, especially group sessions can be difficult and anxiety provoking. You will not be asked to speak in any detail about your trauma in the group sessions. We have found that being part of a group can allow people to feel a sense of understanding and belonging that is unique to meeting other individuals with similar difficulties.Service manager(s)
Dr Nicholas Hearn
