Publish date: 10 June 2022
A psychiatrist from West London NHS Trust has played an important role in campaigning for greater mental health support for renal patients.
Dr Amrit Sachar works at the Trust as consultant liaison psychiatrist.
Dr Amrit and a group of psychosocial professionals specialising in renal disease from across the country have been working with Kidney Care UK to change the way renal patients are supported.
With the assistance of the NHSE/I Renal Services Transformation Programme (RSTP), the group has created a national manifesto with 10 psychosocial recommendations for commissioners and providers of renal services to implement to improve the mental health and wellbeing of renal patients.
The manifesto was launched on Tuesday 7 June at the UK Kidney Week Conference and aims to support the psychosocial needs of people with kidney disease and help them live longer and happier lives.
Dr Amrit said: “It has been an honour to work on this document over the past year with amazing colleagues from renal psychology, counseling, social work and research as well as Kidney Care UK.
“It’s been really tough at times with lots of curve balls, but we have a finished product that was incredibly well received at the UK Kidney Week 2022 Conference.
“The room was packed with not just patients, carers and professionals from the psychosocial sector but renal too.
“This is really important to me. I have been working on integrating mental health into the pathways and commissioning for long term conditions for many years and this is a call to action for the renal community to act.”
A diagnosis of chronic kidney disease can have a significant impact on all aspects of a person's life, in particular their mental health and wellbeing.
The psychosocial care manifesto is a national call to action for all patients, their families and healthcare teams to join together to demand equal access to the highest quality, timely and renal specialist psychological care.
It sets 10 recommendations which aim to achieve an integrated whole-system approach to the care a person living with kidney disease should receive.
You can read more about the psychosocial care manifesto here.
