Mental Health Services on the NHS
There has been an enormous rise in people seeking help for mental health issues, and the NHS has responded by providing services. This includes:
The Long Term Plan reaffirmed its commitment to boost investment in mental health services more quickly than the overall NHS budget. This will include specialist work in suicide prevention.
Get assistance
One out of four of us will experience mental health issues at some time in our lives. The good news is there are many avenues to seek help, and many of us will improve with time. But it's important to know what help is available and who is able to provide it.
You can seek assistance from a variety places like your GP (primary medical doctor for primary care) as well as your local health centre, or a community mental health team. mental health assessments comprise of nurses, occupational and psychotherapists, as well as speech therapists. They work with the people who use their services. You may receive individual or group therapy based on the kind of help you need.
Your doctor will typically ask you to fill in an application form so that they can send you a referral to a community mental health team. They will also ask you to specify what kind of support you need. You will then be seen by someone from a mental health team that may comprise a psychiatrist psychologist or social worker. In certain instances the assessment and treatment will be performed by a nurse specialist. If you're in an emergency, you can contact the NHS 111 helpline for urgent assistance. If you are already receiving mental health support it is recommended to call your usual team first, unless it's outside of hours, or on a weekend or bank holiday.
The Five Year Forward View for Mental Health outlined plans to create more place-based, multidisciplinary community mental health teams that have links to primary care networks. These teams will improve the quality of the care delivered to people experiencing a crisis, and offer support to them in their own homes and communities instead of in hospitals.
The plan also aimed at provide crisis services to more people by reducing wait times and opening more beds. It would also introduce an ambulance for mental health and ensure that all ambulances are outfitted with a mental liaison nurse within the control room to make sure that patients who are suffering from mental illness are assisted in emergency situations.
Treatment options
The NHS offers a variety of treatment options for mental health issues. GPs are usually able to treat minor disorders, but more serious conditions will require a specialist team. These teams operate across primary and community mental health services, and also mental health hospitals. You can also seek help in a safe space if you feel in crisis.
Talking therapies for depression and anxiety are among the main types of treatment. Previously known as IAPT the programs have seen referral numbers increase each year since they were introduced in 2008. The NHS Long Term Plan has committed to expanding these services to 1.9 million people by 2023/2024.
Psychiatric drugs are a different aspect of treatment. They can help alleviate symptoms by altering the way chemicals work in your brain. They can also be used to minimize the adverse effects of other treatments. Your doctor will prescribe the best medicine for you.
A wide range of talking therapy options are offered which include group therapy as well as individual therapy. Some of these treatments are offered in person, while other can be done via remote access. Some patients prefer face-to-face treatment, but it's an individual choice. Mind is one of the organizations that offer support groups and courses. Their website contains a wealth of information that is reliable, however you must be aware that there's lots of misleading or false information available on the internet regarding mental health issues.
The NHS is working to improve the mental health system, but it struggles to meet demand. There are 54 mental health trusts in the UK and the majority of are funded by clinical commissioning organizations to deliver their services. They are typically located in a specific region however, they are also able to be commissioned to deliver national services.
private mental health assessment near me of resources is a major issue. There are concerns over the quality and shortage of nurses and psychiatrists. The NHS is trying to improve the quality of care by introducing new methods of work and delivering more training. It also offers more secure and efficient ways to help those who are in crisis. These include mobile crisis teams and safe spaces.
Helping you
Since the NHS launched 70 years ago there have been numerous positive changes for people with mental health problems. Treatment options have expanded and social barriers are being taken down. But there is much more to be done.
People who are experiencing mental health issues should get the help they need quickly and easily. The NHS is working to improve its services so that people in need are able to access assistance. We will ensure that every acute hospital is without a mental health liaison service in A&E departments and wards for patients by 2020/21. We will also ensure that 70 percent of these services will meet the 'core 24' standard by 2023/24. We will work towards achieving 100% coverage afterward.
We will also increase community services, including talking therapy, to offer assistance to hundreds of thousands of individuals suffering from mental health issues regardless of whether they are common or severe. We will continue to develop our national Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme (IAPT), so that more people suffering from mental health problems can be seen more quickly by trained therapists.
The NHS offers confidential, free helplines to anyone struggling with mental health issues. Samaritans Mind and Rethink are some of the helplines that are available. These helplines are run by trained volunteers. They offer the opportunity to talk with someone in a secure environment or give advice and information on how to tackle your mental health issues.
There are also local organisations that can provide help and advice to those with mental health issues. These can include self-help guides, strategies for coping and activities to try. Many of these organisations also offer face-to-face support groups for those who prefer this method.
The University's Open Door Team offers a drop-in counseling service for students feeling down or stressed. Nightline is a student counseling service that provides confidential listening assistance, information and support from knowledgeable volunteers. Charities such as Mind and Rethink are a great source of information and provide support in a variety of ways that include online and through local groups. They also offer a variety of classes and activities, ranging from mindfulness to art classes that could be beneficial for people who suffer from mental health problems.
Referring someone to you
With mental health services under pressure, GPs are having to make difficult choices about what specialist services they should refer patients to. The doctor will take a patient's medical history into consideration and then refer them to a service they believe will be able to help. They may send a referral to an NHS trust or an independent service.
A mental health specialist will then assess the referral and decide whether it's appropriate or not. If the specialist isn't satisfied with the referral they will call the GP to discuss their decision and provide why. They might request the GP to change the referral or request additional information.
Requests for a local Community Mental Health Team (CMHT) can be made through the NHS e-Referral Service (e-RS). The system allows GPs as well as other health professionals to refer people to either a mental health assessment or directly to an outpatient appointment. However not all CMHTs offer both options and the system can't be used for every kind of mental health referral.
A GP might decide to refer a patient to an expert community mental health service (CMT). They are usually managed by a large hospital or local health care organization. CMTs are a great option for those who want to see an experienced psychologist or psychiatrist but do not require inpatient treatment. They also offer an early intervention service where a psychiatrist collaborates with a therapist to help a person overcome a crisis or increase their quality of life.
CMTs are faced with the task of making sure that all referrals are made within a reasonable amount of time. Many referrals are deemed urgent, even if they may not be. This can lead people who aren't experiencing a crisis to be overworked and experience delays.
To tackle this issue, some CMHTs have tried to establish more uniform guidelines for what constitutes a referral urgent. This has been achieved through the use of the standardised referral forma that requires a referrer consider whether the case is urgent. The form has a checkbox that the referrer can tick if they feel the referral is urgent.