Key findings suggest that staff within generic services had lower levels of skill and appeared to have little work structure or guidance, support or supervision. Generic service staff were more risk averse, with their main focus being to keep service users safe. They were also more likely to admit service users to a ward. They had less time to support service users (1 or 2 cases in a total caseload of between 25-30 cases) and demonstrated more stigmatising perceptions of these service users.

Specialist services deal with the most complex service users. They have a reduced case load of between 10-12 cases so are able to provide a better quality of service to Service users. They focus on recovery and discharge for service users. The specialist service is highly structured, and staff felt well supported and demonstrated a greater acceptance of risk.

This Project Group plan to publish an academic paper and host a public event to disseminate their work.

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