Launched in January 2022, the overall aim of the project is to better understand the current picture of service provision for people with a diagnosis of personality disorder. This will help to identify the key opportunities for improvement and to then develop proposals to deliver those improvements. 

Longer term, the aspiration is that people with a personality disorder presenting to mental health services anywhere in Scotland will have timely access to effective care and treatment. This will include access to self-management, emotional coping skills training and a focus on recovery.

The project will engage with key stakeholders from health, social care, the third sector and people with lived experience to deliver a Scottish Personality Disorder Learning System. Building on the Healthcare Improvement Scotland model for learning systems, this will have the existing Scottish Personality Disorder Network at its heart.

We will work in partnership with these existing stakeholders to strengthen this network. The additional mechanisms will then be added by us to enable the capture and synthesis of current good practice into practical advice and tools that support improvement.

In line with our learning system framework, we will ensure a focus on understanding these existing inequalities in service provision and identify the opportunities to reduce these.

The key deliverables for the learning system are:

  1. Capturing, synthesising and sharing good practice and innovation from areas with established personality disorder services and pathways (including case studies and horizon scanning).
  2. Providing opportunities for members to learn together and access the expertise of others. It will also help provide an opportunity to give and receive support to accelerate improvements in services for people with a personality disorder (including regular webinars and learning sessions).
  3. Developing practical resources which support the implementation of improvements.