Your appointment

We want to help people experiencing a mental health problem get the treatment and support they need as quickly and as effectively as possible.

Whether you make an appointment with your primary care provider to talk about mental health concerns or you're referred to a mental health provider, such as a psychiatrist or psychologist, it makes sense to prepare for your appointment.

We are offering more virtual (online or telephone) appointments, to ensure that patients are only brought on-site where necessary, helping us to adhere to social distancing. Please refer to the information in your appointment letter to confirm how your appointment will take place. If you need any support using digital methods to access a virtual appointment, please call the number on your letter and we will help you get this. If you wish to request a face-to-face appointment, please call us and we will try to accommodate this.

Have a video appointment with the hospital?

Find out how easy Attend Anywhere is to use with the step by step video. 

Please note that Vodafone has joined other major mobile network providers, 02, Three and Sky, in extending the zero rating of 4G data for Attend Anywhere calls until the end of March 2021. We hope this extension will be valuable to patients who currently rely on 4G data to receive NHS care via Attend Anywhere.

Video to embed: Attend Anywhere Video - YouTube 

Before your appointment

Make a list of key information which you might be asked about. For example:

• Any symptoms you or people close to you have noticed, and for how long
• Key personal information, including traumatic events in your past and any current, major stressors
• Your medical information, including other physical or mental health conditions
• Any medications, vitamins, herbal products or other supplements you take, and their doses

Questions to ask

• What type of mental illness might I have?
• Why can't I get over mental illness on my own?
• How do you treat my type of mental illness?
• Will talk therapy help?
• Are there medications that might help?
• How long will treatment take?
• What can I do to help myself?
• Do you have any leaflets or other printed material that I can have?
• What websites do you recommend?

You may have many other questions - it helps to write them down.

Skype
Skype is available to patients as an alternative to face-to-face or telephone contact, not as a replacement.

If you are interested in Skype as an alternative for your appointments please let your care co-ordinator or support worker know and they will go through the process with you.

From time to time, we can email you instead of sending you letters by post. However, some emails from us may end up in your Junk folder if you have not added us to your contacts or safe senders list. 

The following guidance outlines how best to prevent emails being categorised as junk by the NHSmail platform.

How can I stop emails from going to my Junk Folder?

You should be able to manage your emails within your Junk mail folder to ensure that future emails are redirected to the Inbox folder. When an email is initially sent to a mailbox, if the email is sent internally it will appear in the Inbox folder. However, if it is from an external source then it could end up either in the Junk folder or Inbox folder.

Take these steps to mark the email as safe:

• Open your Junk email folder and select the messages you want to keep.
• Mark a sender as “safe” by  clicking Home > Junk > Never Block Sender (or Never Block Sender’s address if you want all emails from that address to bypass the junk filters).
• Add the sender to the Safe Sender list by clicking Add.