Your assessment

The initial appointment usually takes place by telephone. We can accommodate face-to-face appointments so if you would prefer this then please contact our administrative team who will be able to help. 

Prior to your appointment you will receive an appointment confirmation email with a link to several questionnaires. Please fill out the questionnaires and return them via the link as your practitioner will want to go through the answers with you during the assessment. If you do not read English, you may like to ask a trusted person to support you with this. Please do not worry if this is not possible as we can support you with completing the questionnaires during the appointment if needed.

For the telephone assessment you will need to be in a private and confidential space where you feel safe to talk about the issues that are of concern to you. If this is not possible, do let us know and we can invite you for a face-to-face appointment.

During the appointment you will speak with a qualified Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner or a closely supervised Trainee Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner for about 30 to 40 minutes.

We will spend most of the appointment time exploring your difficulties and goals to ensure you are offered the right support.

If you tell us you are having thoughts of wanting to harm yourself, the practitioner will ask further questions to assess your safety and will develop a safety plan with you.

You may also be asked to complete any missing demographic information such as ethnic group and sexual orientation. This is to ensure that as a service we are meeting the needs of our local community.

There will be time for you to ask any questions you might have during the appointment.

The information you share will be kept confidential within the team. The only time we will break this confidentiality is if you mention anything that causes us to think there is a risk of harm to yourself or to others, including if you tell us that you have been involved in or been a victim of a serious crime. In these situations, we will want to think with you about how to keep you and others safe. We may need to disclose some information to relevant organisations to do this which could involve reporting crimes to the Police where there is potential ongoing risk to you or the public. This is a legal safeguarding requirement, but we will let you know if we are going to share any information and will support you to be involved in the process.

At the end of the assessment, you will book in another review call with the practitioner for a few days’ time.

The practitioner will review the assessment information with their supervisor to consider the most appropriate way forward for you.

During the booked review call, you and the practitioner will discuss the support options. Whilst this may be treatment within the service, it may also be that the assessment has indicated that our service is not the right one to offer you the kind of help that you need. If this is the case, then we will talk through the options for support elsewhere.

Following the review call, if you are going to be offered support within the service then you will be placed on a waiting list. The waiting times for different forms of support varies and current waiting times can be accessed by clicking here.

We would usually then write to you with a summary of the assessment appointment and support plan copying in your GP and/or the person who referred you to the service.

If you need to cancel your appointment, please let us know as soon as possible by calling us on 0800 032 1411 / 203 513 4044. With the high demand for the service, we will be able to offer you two appointment times. Should you decline both appointment offers then unfortunately we will need to close your file.

If you do not attend your appointment and do not let us know in advance, then we will assume you no longer require our service and will discharge you back to your GP. Please note that cancelled or missed appointments typically cost the NHS £88. Please support us to protect our NHS resources by attending your appointment.

You can of course re-refer to the service at any time in the future should you change your mind.