THE Awareness Centre (TAC) in Clapham is proud to announce that it has been awarded a three-year contract to provide counselling and psychotherapy as part of a new ‘Talk Wandsworth’ service.

TAC has been contracted by the South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust (SWLSTG) to work in partnership with Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) in Wandsworth to deliver the new integrated talking therapies service for Wandsworth Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

TAC will support the mental health of patients in the Wandsworth community by offering counselling in GP surgeries from April 2017. The ‘Talk Wandsworth’ service aims to help 25,000 people with issues such as anxiety, depression and stress over the next three years.

Working with a multi-disciplinary team, TAC will provide counselling with male and female therapists from a variety of backgrounds and in many different languages.

TAC’s counselling model has a strong track record, which has been running for the past four years working in partnership with IAPT in Lambeth. TAC is currently contracted by the South London & Maudsley NHS Trust (SLaM).

Following on from the success of this model, Wandsworth CCG is pleased to purchase this service to offer talking therapy to patients at GP surgeries across the borough.

TAC has adapted its counselling model to support the inmates at HMP Brixton, and has been contracted since April 2014 by NHS England to offer talking therapies to inmates at different stages of their prison life.

TAC also provides a low-cost counselling service and has private therapists practising from its centre in Clapham, London SW4. At TAC, the Wandsworth contract will be run by a robust team of counsellors, counselling psychologists and psychotherapists who are managed and supervised by an experienced senior team.

TAC will be adding to the team by employing some additional staff. Student counselling practitioners, who are working towards their registration and accreditation, will also be part of the team. TAC Managing Director Michaela McCarthy said: “We are proud to win this new contract, which is testament to the success in practice of our NHS counselling service model.

It has worked in Lambeth, and now patients at GP surgeries in Wandsworth will have access to talking therapy too. We are delighted to be able to help so many more people in the community, and we look forward to supporting patients in the London Borough of Wandsworth.” www.theawarenesscentre.com

Based on information supplied by Michaela McCarthy.