Suffolk Mind service for people with a Borderline Personality Disorder doubles in size

Suffolk Mind has expanded its innovative service for people with a Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), to help a hundred more people a year across Suffolk. 

Waves, funded directly by the NHS in Suffolk, provides a safe and supportive environment for people, giving them a chance to learn new skills to help them maintain their own mental wellbeing. It also helps people with a diagnosis or traits of Borderline Personality Disorder, build their confidence and self-esteem and enables clients to make positive connections and achieve personal goals.

Waves had previously been running weekly sessions in Bury St Edmunds and Ipswich but will now be operating two further days in Ipswich as well as opening new groups in Felixstowe and Haverhill. 160 people a year will now be helped, compared to the 60 being seen previously.

Helen Shenton, Waves Manager, said: “It’s fantastic that we’ve received this funding from the NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to more than double the Waves service.

“It’s an innovative service that is much needed by the community of Suffolk. Extra funding means the service becomes more accessible to people in different areas of Suffolk, as well as reducing our current waiting list by half.

“This is a great opportunity to increase understanding and awareness of Borderline Personality Disorder and to continue to support the mental wellbeing of Suffolk residents.”

Personality disorders are mental health conditions which affect people in some of the following ways:

• Being easily overwhelmed by strong emotions such as distress, anxiety, anger or feelings of low self-esteem
• Avoiding other people and feeling a lack of emotional connection with others
• Seeking control over strong emotions through self-harm (for example, abusing drugs and alcohol, or taking overdoses) or, in rare cases, threatening other people
• Becoming very attached to someone in a short space of time, before ‘pushing’ them away before they can be let down

Suffolk County Council estimates* around 84,000 people in Suffolk “have enough traits of personality disorder to justify further investigation.”

Jon Neal, chief executive of Suffolk Mind, said: “It’s great that the NHS has funded the expansion of this effective and popular service as part of the review of mental health services undertaken over the last 18 months. We hope to be able to expand further in future years to meet the need that’s been identified across the county.”

If you have a diagnosis of or traits of a Borderline Personality Disorder you can self-refer for the Waves service here.

Author: Kristina Brinkley
Posted on: 16th September 2019