Rehabilitation During a Pandemic: Psychiatrists as First Responders?

The South London and Maudsley Community Rehabilitation Psychiatry team aims to provide long-term and holistic care to patients with enduring mental illness. This letter concisely outlines our response to the coronavirus pandemic, including the standard operating procedure we introduced and, at a trust level, the changes made to clozapine monitoring. We were surprised by the expectations of our patients during the pandemic: we found that unwell patients or their carers would contact our service first, ahead of 111, primary care or emergency services for advice and treatment. In response, we took on a deliberative first-responder role. Perhaps this is to be expected for a specialty that provides holistic long-term care to its patients. We think this is of interest to other mental health teams, primary care, community psychiatry teams and the lay reader.