Referring to our services
We aim to make referrals as easy as possible. Here's a quick guide for GPs, private providers, and other healthcare professionals:
1. Crisis service referrals
Primary Care Colleagues can contact the Crisis Access Hub 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on 020 3513 1777. For more information please visit Crisis Access Hub page.
Private providers and all other healthcare professionals should call NHS 111.
2. Specialist advice and referrals
For NHS professionals (including GPs):
- Get specialist advice: Use the NHS eRS advice and guidance service. See further information below on which services are currently available via eRS.
- Make routine or urgent referrals: Most of our services accept referrals through NHS e-Referral Service (eRS). Check below for available services.
- Routine referrals: We aim to respond within 28 days.
- Urgent referrals: We aim to respond within 5 working days.
If someone needs urgent mental health support that cannot safely wait up to 5 working days, they should be referred to the Crisis Access Hub, which provides immediate crisis screening, triage and support.
For private providers:
If you're a private psychiatric service and can't access NHS eRS, either:
- Ask the patient’s GP to refer them to us.
- Check individual services here for referral options.
3. Inpatient service referrals
To transfer a patient from another NHS inpatient service or private provider to our inpatient services, please contact our Acute Care Co-ordination Centre on 020 3513 6487.
Our services
To find out more about how you can refer patients to our services, please look at the individual services profiled on our services page.
The services are arranged alphabetically and provide detailed referral information, a list of conditions treated, profiles of who the service is for and the latest contact details including location maps.
We accept referrals from all qualified professionals, including GPs, A&E departments, and the police.
Active Services on the e-Referral service (eRS)
A number of our services are now active on eRS and we would encourage GPs to use this system when sending through referrals to these teams. The teams using eRS are:
Wandsworth
- Wandsworth SPA (for adults aged 18-74)
- Wandsworth CAMHS SPA (for children and young people up to the age of 18 years)
- Wandsworth Older People is for older adults with mental health conditions. The service supports people aged 70 and over with functional mental illness, and adults of any age with cognitive impairment. Frailty and other physical health conditions are also considered when assessing people under 70 with a functional mental illness.
Merton
- Merton Assessment Team (for people with a serious mental health need)
- Merton CAMHS (mental health assessment and treatment for children, young people aged 5-18 and their families)
- Merton Older People is for people aged 65 and over with dementia or other organic mental health conditions, and people aged 70 and over with functional mental illnesses such as depression.
Sutton
- Sutton Uplift (anyone aged 18 and over)
- Sutton CAMHS (mental health assessment and treatment for children, young people aged 5-18 and their families)
- Sutton Older People is for older adults aged 70 and over who are experiencing mental health difficulties.
Kingston and Richmond
- Kingston Older People is for older adults aged 70 and over with mental health needs. The service also accepts referrals for younger people whose level of frailty means their needs are best met by this service. Referrals are accepted for people under 70 where memory problems are the primary concern, and the service assesses and treats people with an existing dementia diagnosis who are experiencing additional mental health problems
- Richmond Older People is for adults with a cognitive impairment aged 18 and over, and for people aged 70 and over with functional mental illness. Frailty and other physical health conditions are also considered when assessing people under 70 with a functional mental illness.
- CAMHS SPA (for children and young people up to the age of 18 years)
Referrals only need to be sent via eRS and there is no requirement to resend the same referral via email as this does create additional work. We are using eRS for referrals only (not for correspondence letters) and we encourage that referrals include full demographic patient information i.e. gender/marital status and ethnicity as well as any relevant test results.