What do these terms mean?

DontLookUp · 09-11-2013, 07:57 PM

Can anyone clarify what an urgent psychiatric referral is and what a home treatment team are?

And when would a referral be routine/urgent/emergency? Whats the difference?
I feel really confused and overwhelmed about whats going on in my life at the moment.

sherlock holmes · 09-11-2013, 08:11 PM

A referral would be urgent if someone is deemed very unwell or a danger to themselves/other people and in urgent need of psychiatric care.

Home Treatment Team (also known as the Crisis Team) are an alternative to being admitted to psychiatric hospital. They visit you everyday at home to talk to you, they can give you medication if they think it's too risky for you to have it at home, you can ring them 24/7 if you need help and they can admit you to hospital if they feel you need it.

A referral would be routine if someone was experiencing mental illness that was not severe enough for them to be a risk ie they were not suicidal. It would be urgent if the person was suicidal, neglecting themselves, lacking insight to their illness etc.

Ballerina123 · 09-11-2013, 08:24 PM

An urgen referral is usually one that happens more quickly than a general referral. Usually due to a high level of risk assessed in the referred patient.

The home treatment team are a team who visit you at home, usually everyday but sometimes every other day. The sometimes administer medication but their primary job is to assess your mental state and provide psychiatric support while your at home. Home treatment team are often there to prevent a patient needing to be admitted to hospital however if the home treatment team visit you at home and feel there is too much risk or your mental state is too unusable they can arrange for you to be admitted to hospital or if you refuse/don't have the capacity to agree to being admitted they can arrange for a menal health act assessment (an assessment to decide if you need to be detained on section).
In general that home treatment team want to keep you out of hospital so they try to avoid admitting people and continue to support them at home.
The home treatment team also have a psychiatric who you can see about medication changes and some teams even have a psychologist who you can talk to about your mental health difficulties.

Hope this helps x

DontLookUp · 09-11-2013, 08:46 PM

Thank you both for your replies, thats a little clearer for me.
I still don't see why i am an urgent referral, but maybe im not thinking very clearly right now :/

random.swirls · 10-11-2013, 09:58 PM

One thing to bear in mind is that an urgent referral may not be really really quick but your gp is likely to have thought you needed to be seen sooner rather than later and thus put it through as urgent.

DontLookUp · 11-11-2013, 01:10 PM

Thank you, well i got to understand what home treatment team is as they called me and came to assess me, so i don't know if that was the referral she made and not the other one? Too many names and teams and stuff, well i guess soon ill be a pro at all this mental health language haha

random.swirls · 11-11-2013, 02:06 PM

How did you find them?

DontLookUp · 13-11-2013, 01:57 AM

they were quite nice and im seeing the psychiatrist from their team on thursday. I guess i just don't know where this is all leading and i don't really understand what they do as they said they are short term. It isnt really how i imagined all of my MH issues finally coming to surface, but better out then in i guess.

Its been quite difficult all of a sudden though having to talk about everything and repeat myself to a lot of different people all in the space of a very short time so im feeling extra stressed and anxious from that and just want things to settle down as much as they possibly can. I feel very in limbo right now.