South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust (SWLSTG) played host to the University of Geneva psychiatry team, as they visited the Trust’s wards and services to learn more about their advances in mental health care. 

The team from Switzerland visited inpatient wards, and saw first-hand how community care and Home Treatment Teams support people in crisis outside of hospital. 

They also visited the ground-breaking Recovery College, the UK's first mental health recovery study and training facility – which provides a range of courses and resources for service users, families, friends, carers and staff. 

The team wanted to find out how the Trust runs services, hoping to learn and adapt any good learning points to their health care system. 

The team comprised of two psychiatrists and three nurse managers.  

Dr Rathelot Thomas, a psychiatric nurse and Kris Nagalingum, nurse manager at the University of Geneva said: 

"We chose the Trust so we could learn more about how the UK mental health care system works, and how we could take some of this learning back to Switzerland.  

“We are particularly interested in the work the Trust does around recovery and home treatment - especially seeing services like the Recovery College, which is only starting up in Switzerland, and services in community care and home treatment, where Switzerland is lagging behind. We will be going back with a lot of great ideas." 

Catherine Gamble, Head of Academic Nursing/Consultant Nurse at SWLSTG said: 

"I was delighted that these distinguished guests chose to visit our mental health services and that the reputation of some of our clinical services has grown to be amongst the best in the world. It was a great pleasure to welcome them and introduce them to the Recovery College, team leaders and service transformation colleagues. 

“When you are passionate about helping people get better as we are at SWLSTG, it is important to share your learning as widely as possible.”

South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust hosts many visits from colleagues in medical institutions around the world every year, who are keen to see and learn from their internationally renowned and innovative mental health services, and share areas of best practice.

Find out more on the South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust website, and follow them on Twitter.