Community mental health services

Accessing mental health services

The Mental Health Access and Brief Treatment Team manages access to our specialist mental health services. You may have heard us call this the single point of access.

The team works with adults aged 18 to 74 who are experiencing mental health difficulties and need more specialist intervention, in addition to the support provided by primary care teams.

If you require a mental health assessment, we recommend:

a referral by a GP or primary health professional who can share the information we need to make an appointment for this discussion
a referral by a VSCE (voluntary sector) organisation where they are working with a person and require additional support

This information will be provided via our referral form and sent to the appropriate referral address in:

Once we have a referral, our mental health team will review the information and arrange next steps.

Changes to care planning

We are changing the way that we plan and deliver care here at the Trust.

Following new guidance from NHS England, we are moving away from the Care Programme Approach and adopting a more person-centred method of care planning for every adult accessing community-based mental health care.

From 5 February 2024, we will begin a phased approach to a new way of working.

Our aim is to co-produce a holistic personalised care and support plan with every individual. We will provide a named key worker as a point of contact and support if someone's needs change.

The new care planning approach, called Dialog+, makes it much easier to co-produce a personalised care and support plan.

What is Dialog+?

Dialog+ is a model which makes routine meetings more therapeutically affective.

It helps to create a care plan that is personalised to the individual. Dialog+ was designed, evaluated, and implemented with patients. It helps a person use their own words to plan and plot the route to their recovery.

Conversations focus on giving a score of 1 to 7 across 11 areas or ‘domains’ relating to your life.

The care professional then uses these scores to have a focused discussion around 3 of these areas. Through this conversation, the professional works together with an individual to create a care plan.

Dialog+ is evidenced to improve quality of life for people over a 12-month period.

For people who are new to the service

If you are new to the team, we will:

carry out an assessment to better understand your needs
discuss how we can support you to feel safe
make a care plan using Dialog+
identify a key worker to support you through the next stage of your care

For people who are currently supported by the community mental health team

If the team currently supports you, you will have a care plan and a care coordinator. It is likely that you will have a care plan review within a 6-month period.

At your next review meeting, we will talk to you about the changes to the care planning process. We will explain what this means for you. The team will discuss with you who is the person best placed to be your key worker. In some cases, this will still be your current care coordinator.

Lived experience in the Trust

As part of our community mental health transformation programme, we are keen to involve those people who have their own personal experience of mental health issues to use these experiences to:

help us review our current services
improve and co-produce services and activities
work with us and share your expertise

We have many different roles within the Trust for people who have personal or lived experience. We have put together a film to help better explain about these roles and the support you can expect.