PAUSE/At Risk Mental State (ARMS)
The PAUSE Team is LPTs At Risk Mental State provision. PAUSE stands for Psychological Awareness of Unusual and Sensory Experiences. The service provides psychologically informed assessment, formulation, and intervention to individuals aged 14-35 who are at high risk of developing psychosis. It is helpful to see PAUSE as a step before the PIER Team (Early Intervention in Psychosis service).
Types of experiences that might be consistent with an At Risk Mental State include:-
- Seeming muddled, losing concentration, problems with memory, notable disorganisation.
- Thoughts feeling speeded up or slowed down
- Voice hearing, paranoia, unusual beliefs (but not so pronounced they require antipsychotic medication)
- Marked and often sudden decline in overall level of functioning
- Social withdrawal / discontinuation of employment or education
- Deteriorating relationships with friends and family
- Constant tiredness / sleep disturbance / loss of energy and motivation
- Appetite changes
- Feeling ‘uneasy’, irritable / Mood swings
- The above may be in the context of longer term anxiety or mood difficulties
The ethos of PAUSE is to create non-labelling, non-pathologising narratives for understanding unusual and often extremely distressing experiences. The service offer is based upon psychological and social interventions.
PAUSE is set up to be responsive to referrals received. Clinicians respond to referral enquiries on the day they come in. Referrals are usually processed within 24 hours and when inclusion criteria are met an initial assessment meeting is offered within 10 working days. When accepted into the service appointments are usually offered weekly or fortnightly. If PAUSE is not deemed to be the most appropriate service to meet someone’s needs, PAUSE will usually signpost onward rather than return the referral to the original referrer.
Referral criteria
- Aged 14 – 35 years
- Residing in Leicester, Leicestershire or Rutland (GP needs to be in LLR Integrated Care Board)
- Onset of difficulties consistent with an “at risk mental state” within approximately the last 6-12 months
- Presence of unusual experiences consistent with an “at risk mental state” which occur independently of substance use. They may be drug induced but have to occur whilst the person is not under the influence of substances
- The “at risk mental state” presentation is the individual’s primary difficulty
- The individual experiencing the above must want to work with the PAUSE Team
- All LPT services can refer to us directly via email lptpauseadmin@nhs.net or by discussing with the team Duty Worker on 0116 2156288. Services outside of LPT need to refer via the Central Access Point”
Criteria exclusion
Exclusion criteria:- • Long standing difficulties, usually if present for longer than 12 months • Clear evidence of past or current psychosis such that requires prescription of anti-psychotic medication or which lasted longer than 7 days • Unusual experiences that have a physical or organic cause – Any medical investigations into this must be completed and ruled out prior to the point of referral to PAUSE • Unusual experiences that occur only whilst under the influence of drugs or alcohol
How to access this service
The PAUSE Team are based at Gwendolen House at the Leicester General Hospital.
Tel:- 0116 215 6288
Email:- lpt.pauseadmin@nhs.net
What conditions do you cover
We can support individuals experiencing unusual experiences as described above regardless of their diagnosis (or lack of)”
Contact info
0116 225 6000