Community Service details page

The Women's Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) Pathway works alongside wider OPD services to provide gender-informed consultations, advice and training for professionals working with women who screen onto the OPD pathway. The emphasis is on assisting professionals with an early identification, pathway planning and development of trauma-informed formulations, but the service also offers direct practical and emotional support as well as accommodation and specialist therapeutic interventions for women with complex needs who may otherwise struggle to access support through mainstream services. The Women’s OPD team consists of multi-agency professionals from probation, NHS and third sector partners who work in close collaboration to provide holistic approach to providing stabilisation, psychological interventions, and risk management.

What does our service do?

Each of the OPD London quadrants include a specialist Women’s Champion who work with the probation Women’s PDPO and pan London Women’s OPD Psychological Therapist in providing consultation and pathway support to probation practitioners and staff at Women’s Approved Premises as well as facilitating access to the direct work service.

The direct work options include psychologically informed stabilisation support including Dialectical Behavioural Therapy Skills (DBT) and psycho-educational approaches to managing symptoms of trauma. The enhanced psychological treatment options include Mentalisation Based Therapy (MBT), Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Schema Therapy.

In addition, the women can access practical and emotional support including through the gate service through the Bluebird Service (Delivered by Together) and specialist supported housing at HerStory House in Brixton provided by Penrose. HerStory House also provides weekly non-residential Hub space including social and wellbeing activities.

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