Referral Presentation

What is a referral?
A referral is basically a request to access a service support, it can be made from another
professional, it can be made, you can get a self – referral, but it is usually a written
request to access a particular service.

When do I need a referral?

That’s realty difficult question to answer, it kind of depends on what service you’re being
referred to, some service are there to kind of get in and help early on, other service are
there for more crisis points in your life. I think probably a better question to ask your self
is, do I need help? Do I feel like I need help, do I feel like I’m not managing day to day?
Am I not doing the things that other young people my age are doing, or that I used to able
to do? Do I feel like I need help in order to be able to cope batter day to day and order to
be doing to sort of stuff, I want to be doing day to day?

Who can provide a referral? Can I refer myself?

Again that kind of depends on where you’re referred to, if we think about CAMHS
service. It depends where you live in the country as to who can make a referral, so there
are definitely some places in the country. Where only GP’s can refer in CAMHS. There
are other places, where school can refer CAMHS and there are some even places where
CAMHS accept self referrals. So you need to do some research and find out what the
satiation is in your area. GP and your school will pretty much always how to best access
CAMHS. But there might be other services as well apart from CAMHS that you want to
access. There are, kind of, various voluntary services, charity based services, and there
are also private therapists, private providers. And they have slightly different referral
routes. Again I’d probably advice doing to your GP and talking to them about what
resources are available in your area. Or maybe it you feel kind of safe to ask school if
they know what previsions are out there for young people and how you get in to them.

Can I choose which service I am referred to?

The reality is that I think most places in the country, that there is some limits on the
number of different services that you can access. And there are some pleasure or services,
especially CAMHS, it terms of the amount that they can offer people in that area, there
are some services that may be eligible for, so it would great if we could think about all
the different services that are in your area and chose which one we want to go for, but the
reality is that sometimes you can’t access the service you would like to, but that’s not to
say that it’s not a good idea to do a bit of research about what’s available in your area,
and how to be referred in to those different services. But it is also good to take advice,
because the people will have understanding may be better understanding of those
different services that you do may be just by looking at the website or hearing just one
person’s account of it, so, for example, your GP might have a good idea about why it’s
better for you to go to this service rather than that service, and you can have discussion
with them and then you are making more of am informed decision if you’re lucky enough
to be in the position where you can decide which service you want to go to.
What happens once a referral has been made?
So, again, it kind of depends on where you’re being referred to and who’s referring you,
but if we think specifically about CAMHS referral, because I guess that the kind of most
obvious type of referral that young people will get it they’re worrying about, you know, it
they need help their mental health, you GP usually, that can be your school in some areas,
will write CAMHS with a brief description about why you’ve come why you have need
help. And then the CAMHS team will take that referral into their meeting and allocate
you an appointment for as assessment. The assessment can be any where between one or
three sessions normally you’ll be invited to go and meet with the therapist and talk bout
what’s brought you to CAMHS. It you’re a bit older certainly if you’re over 16, you can
to go your GP and seek a referral without your parents consent and once you’ve been
seen for that assessment you will then hear back from the CAMHS service they will let
you a little bit about how they see the problems and what support they might or might not
be able to offer you. And at that stage, I mean the stage of your assessment, it is quite
important for you to think yourself about what sort of help you want, because quite often
young people have been straggling for a little while before they actually get to the GP and
ask to go to CAMHS. So you might have done a bit of thinking about if you had therapy
what sort of therapy would you like. May be you have done a bit of research about
different types of therapies or for some reason for you its really important that, for
example, you see a woman rather than a man and at the assessment you can tell them
those sort of things. They can’t they’re not necessarily guaranteed to provide you with

How long will I have to wait to see a service after being referred?
What can I do if I don't agree with a referral?

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