Service details

Barnet CEN Pathway Team is a dedicated, non-forensic, multidisciplinary team for service users experiencing moderate to severe emotional and interpersonal difficulties sometimes associated with ‘personality disorder’ diagnoses. 

We are a dynamic and creative team with numerous skillsets. Our aim is to provide high-quality clinical interventions which not only address the psychological needs of service users but also recognising the importance of supporting service users to develop the necessary practical skills of everyday life as a fundamental steppingstone to engage in psychological work.

This service offers the following treatment pathways and interventions:

• Mentalization Based Treatment (MBT) Pathway. MBT is one of the treatments recommended by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence for difficulties described as complex emotional needs or ‘personality disorder’. MBT consists of a short-term psycho-education group, followed by an 18-month, twice-weekly treatment programme, which is made up of individual and group therapy sessions.
• As a part of the MBT pathway we offer an art psychotherapy group to offer a choice of expression, exploration, and therapeutic process, through visual media. 
• A small Structured Clinical Treatment Pathway (SCM) for 18-25 service users, offering individual and group therapeutic work within a framework based on the Structured Clinical Management (SCM) model. The SCM model supports service-users to develop and build a psychological understanding of their experiences and difficulties, working towards personal goals; social care needs and crisis planning.
• We also offer skills-based and psychologically informed group interventions which aim to increase understanding of individual strengths. These groups are based within the context of trauma-informed care and aim to provide both education and skills to understand and manage difficult emotional states.
• We provide support for friends, family and significant others. This includes facilitating meetings with the person accessing the service and a friend or family member, and educational groups.
• 1-2-1 or group peer support with lived experience practitioners (LXPs). LXPs have an essential role within our team, working in a person-centred way, occasionally drawing on their own experiences of mental health difficulties and navigating mental health systems. Also supporting people to access community resources pre, during, and post interventions.
• A specialist consultation and liaison service (CALS) is available to support colleagues working with service users with complex emotional needs in acute and community services across the borough.
• We provide and deliver several training packages, including KUF (knowledge and understanding framework) training for clinical and non-clinical staff working with service users experiencing complex emotional difficulties, or have received a diagnosis of ‘personality disorder’.
• The team is working in close partnership with other mental health teams and community organisations in Barnet, our service also offers support to help people engage in education, voluntary or paid employment, and other social and inclusion opportunities.