Services

23 November, 2017

Change relating to the point of free assessment: prompt assessment of needs

St Patrick’s Mental Health Services are improving the way we assess referrals, in order to improve speed of access.

This is in response to feedback from service users and referrers about the waiting times to access initial outpatient assessment in our Dean Clinics.

It is important to note that referrals for inpatient admission will continue to be managed in the same way and will not be impacted by this change.

Any referrals received after 24th November 2017 for the Dean Clinic free-of-charge assessments will be transferred into our new Referral & Assessment Service and will now receive a free-of-charge assessment by an experienced mental health nurse. This will allow for more prompt and efficient Mental Health assessments and onward referral to the most appropriate service.

Service users can access this assessment from their own home, without the need to travel to a clinic. A range of communications technologies including telephone and audio visual technologies such as ‘Skype’ or ‘face time’ will be used to provide the assessment. The choice of communication with the Referral & Assessment Service will be based on the preference of the service user.

If you have any queries, please contact the Referral & Assessment Service on 01 249 3635 or you can contact our switchboard out of hours on 01 249 3200.

Tags:   Assessment   Referral