SEPT Hosts Visit of Global Pharmaceutical Executives Visit to Innovative MAP Project

South Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (SEPT) has today hosted a visit of senior executives from pharmaceutical company Janssen.

Jaak Peeters, Janssen Company Group Chairman, Pharmaceuticals, Global Strategy, Innovation and New Businesses and Diego Miralles, Global Head, Innovation, Janssen Pharmaceuticals met with SEPT Chief Executive Sally Morris to visit the Maintaining Adherence Project (MAP) to see the project first hand and discuss continuing the partnership.

The innovative MAP programme aims to reduce the risk of relapse and subsequent distress suffered by patients with diagnoses of schizophrenia and affective disorders, and is delivered through a patient-focussed care management approach. This ensures that the services offered, which include a number of different approaches such as a comprehensive psycho-education package, a wellbeing programme and a telephone and SMS reminder service that links patients, carers and clinicians, are tailored to individuals and their families.

In addition to the benefits to patients and their families, the model has demonstrated improvements in the quality of health and social care delivery, and has significantly reduced re-admissions to acute mental health care and thereby produced cost savings for the mental health system.

A recent report (Rethink & Schizophrenia Commission) showed c.200,000 people in England have schizophrenia. The cost of psychosis is estimated at nearly £12billion in England alone.

Non-adherence to treatment is a major problem for providers across the UK. A 12-month academic study showed that 67% of patients with schizophrenia were frequently non-adherent. Relapse often leads to costly acute mental hospital admissions, as well as removing patients from their support/recovery networks. Nationally, non-adherence results in an extra annual cost £2,500 per patient for inpatient services and more than £5,000 per patient for total service use.

MAP is an important project testing a new model of care for people with long term mental illness. The Southend team is close to the end of an 18-month research project. The interim results are very promising. Patients are very happy with the service (with 98% saying they would recommend to a friend), and their revised care and treatment allows them to be treated closer to home (with an almost 60%) reduction in days in hospital.

Sally Morris, SEPT Chief Executive said “SEPT is excited to continue to be at the forefront of service development with this project. It will put patients first by designing highly-individualised packages around them to support their continuing recovery and improve outcomes by reducing the need for hospital stays and helping people to stay well for longer in their communities as well as reducing the pressure on families. It will improve efficiency by targeting support and assistance at a stage to where it can make the most difference to patient’s lives. This approach, with our colleagues at Janssen Healthcare Innovation, shows what can be done in mental health services with a dedicated focus on driving up quality for patients through innovations that support prevention of more severe illness, and the provision of highly productive specialist services when and where people need them”.

Diego Miralles, Global Head of Innovation, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, said: “Janssen Healthcare Innovation is delighted to be part of this important joint working agreement with SEPT and to be helping transform the delivery of care for people living with long-term mental illness. With our long-standing and ongoing commitment to mental health, we recognise the urgency to modernise and improve care in this area of significant need.   

“We are encouraged to see the positive preliminary results of the trial at SEPT with a reduction in bed days, and high levels of staff and patient satisfaction.  It is our hope that this new evidence-based model of care will be rolled out more widely to help benefit patients, carers and clinicians across the country.”

SEPT is providing the clinical expertise and a dedicated adherence team, project management and other support services to the project whilst Janssen Healthcare Innovation bring project management, the most up to date digital platform required to operate the model through and a telephone support service to the partnership. A Project Board ensures robust oversight and governance.

 ENDS