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SEQUOIA

At this stage please do not contact Sequoia asking for support for yourself or to refer someone. For now please access support within your current network and local services. The service will be opening in localities in the following order -
Weston-Super-Mare - Open
Woodspring – Open
Bristol – Final areas to open

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Open daily

About the service

Sequoia is a new service designed to support people with complex emotional needs and personality difficulties (CEN/PD). Sequoia is an NHS-commissioned service that is delivered in partnership between Rethink Mental Illness and AWP Partnership Trust.

The name comes from the Sequoia tree, a redwood tree that is some of the largest in the world. The name was chosen as those trees represent strength, the ability to cope with adversity, and a life lived best in communities – these values we associate with how people with CEN/PD survive and thrive.

Sequoia is open to everyone in our communities who has CEN/PD, Sequoia has some broad criteria for who is best suited to their support, see details further down the page. We welcome people from all backgrounds. At the heart of Sequoia is lived experience, it’s been built from the ground up with input from experts by experience throughout, from planning how the service will operate and what it offers to delivery of the support options themselves.

The service is staffed by a mix of Peer Support Workers, Clinicians, Wellbeing Practitioners, Leadership Staff and Administrators.


 How can we help? 

Your choice on which intervention you feel is most appropriate for you is important to us. If Sequoia might be right for you, you will be invited to a Welcome Session. At this session, Sequoia staff will discuss the interventions on offer. Sequoia offers three main group support options that you’ll be able to choose from, Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) informed course, Peer Support groups, Mentalization Based Treatment (MBT) and Understanding Yourself and Others - an interactive learning course. Staff will help you choose between these options. Before starting any of the interventions staff will meet with you to discuss the intervention in more depth and check it is right for you. These meetings are either in person, online, or via a phone call. If it is agreed between you and the service agree, that the intervention is right for you, the next step is you are invited to the group. See the table below for more details on each intervention. 


Interventions: 

 

Learning: Understanding myself and other 

Peer Support:  Groups led by people with lived experience 

Dialectical Behavioural Therapy informed group 

Mentalization Based Treatment (MBT)

Days and times 

Tuesday mornings

(TIME TBC)

Wednesday afternoons

1 pm - 3 pm - with 30 mins decompression time between 3 pm - 3:30 pm

Mornings 10 am -12 pm Evenings 6 pm -8pm

Tuesday mornings,

Tuesday Evenings, Wednesday Mornings, Thursday Mornings, Thursday Evenings

Day time TBC

Length of time 

6 weeks  / 2 hours a week 

12 weeks total in 4-week blocks / 2 hours a week 

14 weeks  / 2 hours a week 

14 hrs / 2 hrs a week

Online or face-to-face 

Face to face 

Face to face 

Online 

Face to face

Requirement for service users 

Attend the first two weeks 

Attend the first two sessions in a block 

If you miss two you can have a conversation with us and discuss continuing on the next block of four weeks 

Attend the first two weeks 

and not miss more than 3 sessions in total 

Attend the first two weeks and do not miss more than 3 in total

Once you have finished the group intervention staff will offer to meet with you again to review how things have been and think with you about the next steps. After this review, we ask everyone to have some time to put the things they have learned into practice. This period of consolidation lasts between three to six months, after which time you are welcome to come back and have another Sequoia intervention, either the same one again or a different one. These support options aren’t a promise of recovery or a fix-all – we know recovery and healing is a hard journeys. However, what they can do is help you connect with others and develop some of the skills you might need to lead a more fulfilling life.
All aspects of Sequoia are co-produced by people who have been through the service, as well as clinicians, leaders from AWP and Rethink, and commissioners. Sequoia always welcomes feedback on the service provided and aims to recruit people who have lived experience of CEN/PD themselves.

 

Who does Sequoia support? 

  • People 18+ - no upper age limit
  • Without a diagnosis of dementia or significant neurological impairment
  • With complex emotional needs/personality difficulties – emerging, mild up to moderate. People are screened with Standardized Assessment of Severity or Personality Disorder (SASPD)
  • Person can keep themselves safe within their current support network e.g. not utilizing services such as street triage, ED attendance/psych liaison. (see - Risk to self-safety criteria)
  • Drug and alcohol use must be stable / not in active addiction
  • Able to work in a group setting. For example - be able to manage feelings and communication, so as not to harm others in the group
  • People with or without a formal diagnosis of complex emotional needs or personality difficulty

 

Sequoia will work with local partners to actively engage people who historically other services have found difficult to engage and will support them to access Sequoia. There will be ring fenced Welcome Session Capacity for people who have found it harder to engage with services with the aim of enhancing their chances of receiving support from Sequoia.

 

Sequoia is a small service whose core function is to provide interventions to people. Sequoia can only support people who are currently able to keep themselves safe within that person’s support network. The following is a guide to who Sequoia can and cannot support. 

Safety criteria:

  • Suicidal thoughts and/or behavior:
    × Sequoia cannot support people who are actively suicidal.
    Sequoia can work with people who have suicidal thoughts and who have had this discussed in a support conversation.
  • Self-harm:
    × Sequoia cannot support people who are currently presenting with life threatening self harm.
    Sequoia can work with people who are self-harming and who have the right support around them from their current network.
  • Harm to others:
    × Sequoia cannot support people who are likely to harm other people in a group setting or outside of that group.
    Sequoia can work with people who struggle with anger and are able to control it during interventions with Sequoia.

How do I access Sequoia?

It is predicted there are around 12,000 adults with CEN/PD in BNSSG. Sequoia is opening slowly and sustainably so that the service can provide good quality support to everyone who they work with. To begin with, Sequoia is working with the MINT in each area to identify people who are already referred to the Access Services. People cannot currently be referred to Sequoia directly, but if it is felt Sequoia might be helpful for someone we will let them know. Medium-term Sequoia will open to direct referrals from professionals and longer-term Sequoia hope to accept self-referrals. 

 

Sequoia will eventually be available across North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, and Bristol (BNSSG). The service will be opening in localities in the following order -

Weston-Super-Mare - Open

Woodspring – Open

South Gloucester – Next area to open

Bristol – Final areas to open

At this stage please do not contact Sequoia asking for support for yourself or to refer someone. For now please access support within your current network and local services.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Location