The City and Hackney Primary Care Psychotherapy Consultation Service (PCPCS) is a new, innovative primary care based mental health service for patients and general practice staff in City and Hackney. We are a GP aligned service. Any City and Hackney GP can refer any patient registered with their practice.
Why refer to this service?
We provide a flexible and pragmatic multi-modal service for people with mental health issues who have complex needs. This service is for patients who do not meet criteria for existing primary and secondary care services or who find it difficult to engage with these services. We aim to work in partnership with you, developing a dialogue that enables you to support your patients.
Our service is aimed at people who might otherwise fall through the net of mental health care. We target patients who do not meet criteria for existing primary and secondary care mental health services, or who find it difficult to engage with these services. This includes:
- patients with medically unexplained physical symptoms, including those with high volume notes and previous multiple referrals
- patients with significant interpersonal difficulties, not suitable for other mental health services or with difficulty engaging in these services
- people with mental health difficulties who have been discharged from other services or do not meet their referral thresholds
- frequent attenders for GP consultation
- patients with difficult, poor or non-engagement in services.
Within this broad remit, we will work in partnership with you to consider the suitability of our service to a range of problems.
What do we offer you?
Each consortium has a named clinical coordinator providing an interface between your practice and our team. You can discuss referrals with your clinical co-ordinator, who will work with you to establish what will be most helpful to you and your patient.
Through case discussion, joint consultations and training, we can advise on referrals and support practice staff in their ongoing work with patients. This can enable staff to feel more confident in working with people with complex mental health issues.
We will respond to your referral within two weeks. Where we see patients individually for assessment or therapy, we will offer a first appointment within five weeks and provide you with regular updates and feedback.
What do we offer your patients?
Your patients will be seen by experienced, qualified clinicians from the disciplines of psychology, psychiatry, nursing and social work. These clinicians are skilled in the flexible delivery of a range of therapeutic approaches shown to be effective in working with people with complex mental health issues.
Our clinicians work in local GP practices to provide detailed mental health assessments for patients. Following assessment we can offer a variety of interventions, depending on what would be most suitable for your patient.
How to make a referral
Potential referrals can be discussed with your named clinical co-ordinator in person, via telephone or email. Referrals can be made via post, fax or email using the attached referral pro-forma.
