Service available in:
Who we are
Our Assessment Team provides specialist assessment, advice and signposting for adults with moderate to severe symptoms of mental illness such as severe depression and anxiety, as well as conditions like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Our team is here to help 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
Who is our service for?
Our service is for adults with moderate to severe symptoms of mental illness, whose needs would best be met by secondary mental health services.
To be accepted by Warrington Assessment Team, you will need to have a GP within the Warrington area.
We work closely with other local mental health services, including NHS and third sector services.
Make an appointment to see your GP. He or she will be happy to work with you to help you to manage mild to moderate symptoms of mental ill-health outside of secondary services.
It might be that you do need more specialised support. If so, your GP can make a referral to our Assessment Teams on your behalf. If it isn't practical to speak to your GP first, don't worry as you can contact us directly if you need urgent help (see 'Contact us' on the right of this page).
After we have received your referral, we will get in touch with you to arrange a telephone call with one of our mental health nurses to assess your mental health needs. If there is any reasons as to why you are unable to complete a telephone assessment, or you believe you require reasonable adjustments made for this to happen, please let your referrer or the Team know.
For confidentiality purposes, the Team will ring from a withheld number. If we are unable to reach you, we will leave a voicemail where possible, or write to you to ask to get in touch.
During your telephone assessment, the nurse will ask you questions about your symptoms and how they are affecting you. This will help us to decide what level of support you need and which service will be able to meet your needs best.
If after speaking to you, they feel you would benefit from a more detailed face-to-face assessment, they will be able to make an appointment for you with one of our senior mental health nurses at Wakefield House at Warrington Hospital. This assesment will usually be completed during one appointment, however occasionally the Team may wish to see you again, or refer you onto another professional in the Team, such as a pharmacist or doctor.
During your appointment, the senior nurse will develop a plan of care with you. If you require ongoing support from secondary mental health services, they will then be able to refer you onto the most appropriate local service so you can access support.
It may be that we feel other local services would be better able to help you, such as psychological therapy (IAPT) services or third sector organisations. If this is the case, our team will be able to refer you onto these services so you can begin accessing help.