Management School researchers review mental health support service
A team of Management School researchers recently undertook a review of the telephone support service, ‘Let’s Keep Talking’.
‘Let’s Keep Talking’ is a free telephone support service which can be accessed via self-referral or through other organisations. It is run by a Liverpool based mental health service and delivered by staff and trained volunteers.
After evaluating the utility of the service and its long-term viability post-pandemic, Professor Philippa Hunter-Jones, Dr Rachel Spence and PhD student Chloe Spence found that ‘Let’s Keep Talking’ is a service model to be celebrated and invested in. Its key strengths - which include accessibility, immediacy, and collaborative/client-centred approach - appear to contribute to an improvement in clients’ experiences, not only of individual mental health services but also of broader mental health systems.
Professor Philippa Hunter-Jones commented: “The Psychological Therapies Unit, Liverpool, are mental health practitioners at the heart of the health sector response to COVID; working with them has been inspirational. Their agile response to the service disruption caused by COVID raises important questions and opportunities linked to ways of re-designing future mental health service provision.”
The evaluation report also provides recommendations to enable ‘Let’s Keep Talking’ to improve its service offering, including a review of the communications strategy and exploring opportunities for the provision of blended-care.
The full report can be accessed online.
Chloe Spence is completing an ESRC Case Studentship funded by the North West Doctoral Colloquium whilst Professor Philippa Hunter-Jones and Dr Rachel Spence undertook this work on a pro bono basis.