Devon Partnership NHS Trust has successfully integrated a prolonged grief disorder therapy pathway within their NHS Talking Therapies Service TALKWORKS, with support from the NIHR Mental Health Translational Research Collaboration (MH-TRC) Mission.
The MH-TRC Mission’s Mood Disorders Network is a coordinated network of 15 research- focused clinics dedicated to treatment-resistant depression (TRD) and related mood disorders, set up across the UK.
Prolonged grief disorder therapy is a specific form of Talking Therapies which targets symptoms of grief to help people adapt and integrate the loss of a loved one into their lives.
TALKWORKS conducted an evaluation of the prolonged grief pathway, which was published in The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist and supported by the Mood Disorders Network.
The evaluation found that a specialist prolonged grief disorder therapy pathway delivered through an NHS Talking Therapies service was feasible and acceptable to people who were referred. Therapy sessions were well attended and associated with significant improvements in grief, anxiety and depression symptoms.
The study also found that most participants benefited from treatment, dropout rates were low, and no treatment-related harms were identified, suggesting the approach could be successfully implemented within NHS services.
Since 2023, over 700 people have been referred to the prolonged grief disorder pathway at Devon Partnership NHS Trust.
Recently Sarah Goff, Operational & Professional Lead at TALKWORKS won a Devon Partnership NHS Trust award for the successful implementation of the pathway at the Trust.
Sarah, with colleagues from the University of Exeter’s psychological therapies AccEPT Clinic, is now supporting implementation of a national training opportunity for maternal mental health services, to implement to delivery of prolonged grief disorder therapy for people who experience pregnancy loss, stillbirth and neonatal deaths.
Sarah said: “I was honoured to receive the Board Award from Devon Partnership Trust in recognition of the collaborative working with the MH-TRC Mission and the continued commitment to the delivery of prolonged grief disorder therapy within TALKWORKS.
“It really has been an outstanding example of collaboration and team work, the bringing together of clinical expertise, commitment and passion for an area of mental health care that requires recognition and a specific clinical focus”.
The Mood Disorders Network plans to introduce a hybrid implementation trial of the therapy across national NHS Talking Therapies settings.
Professor Barney Dunn, AccEPT Clinic Co-lead and Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Exeter said:
“The implementation of the prolonged grief pathway in Devon is a positive example of how the MH-TRC Mission is translating research into clinical practice, whilst strengthening NHS and University partnerships.
“We plan to scale up our efforts to introduce the pathway in other locations across the UK to further expand free access to prolong grief support to people who need it the most.”
“I am really at a loss as to what words to use to sum up the impact the work we’ve done together has had on me and my family and how much I will benefit from it for many years to come. I think it’s been lifesaving and helped me find a way to actually live the life I am lucky to have!” – Patient from TALKWORK’s prolonged grief disorder pathway
