Louth mental health nurse reaches the final in national awards

Tracy Ward, team co-ordinator for the Louth Community Mental Health Team, started in her post two years ago, and made a difference straight away.

One of her first initiatives was to develop and introduce a new system for assessing patients referred to the team.

This could be done within days of referral in many cases, face-to-face, at home, at a clinic; however, the majority of patients were happy to receive telephone triage.

The prompt assessment of people’s needs allows the team to quickly access the right support and treatment, and the assessment clinics have now been rolled out to all community mental health teams across the county.

Alongside Tracy in the final is her colleague at the Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Zoë Rowe (Associate Director of Nursing and Quality).

The winners of the British Journal of Nursing Awards 2018 will be announced on Friday, March 9, at a ceremony in London.