Psychologists working in acute mental health services provide rapid assessment and brief treatments and therapies for people who are cared for by our acute inpatient teams.
They aim to:
- Understand the crisis
- Reduce distress
- Support safer behaviour by developing better coping strategies.
The team works across all acute inpatient wards, crisis and assessment teams (CATTs) in the London boroughs of Ealing, Hammersmith and Fulham, and Hounslow, and with the West London NHS Trust single point of access service.
They may join ward rounds to suggest a referral to psychology, consider support in the community and suggest ideas to help the service user while they’re in acute care.
The psychological therapies team includes:
- Clinical psychologists
- Counselling psychologists
- Cognitive behaviour therapists
- Psychology graduates working towards professional registration
- Nurses with additional training in psychological therapies.
The team offers short-term psychology. This could be individual therapy, as a one-off session or a few sessions, or group therapy.
Group therapy might focus on developing coping skills and talking about ways of coping that are helpful and unhelpful. People aren’t obliged to talk if they don’t want to.
The team also recommends what might help with longer-term recovery.
Your therapist might stop you from talking about traumatic experiences. This is because it can be very upsetting and we want you to have the necessary coping skills first.
Traumatic experiences take longer to work through safely. If need therapy for this, we can consider which community services can support you.
We want you to feel safe to talk.
Therapists write notes on an electronic system, which can be seen by the ward and community teams that work with you. Please tell your therapist if you talk about something that you don’t want others to know. They can discuss your concerns with you.
Referrals are made by the team on the ward where you’re receiving care. being cared for. You can also ask the psychology team or ward staff to see a therapist themselves.
Psychological therapies support acute mental health services in the following locations.
In Ealing:
Ealing crisis assessment and treatment team (CATT).
In Hammersmith and Fulham:
- Askew ward
- Avonmore ward
- Lillie ward
- Apollo ward
- Hammersmith and Fulham CATT.
In Hounslow:
- Kingfisher ward
- Finch ward
- Kestrel ward
- Grosvenor ward
- Robin ward
- Hounslow CATT.