Mental Health and Wellbeing

The Mental Health and Wellbeing ECS Hub service is for any person (aged 16 years and Under 65) who is registered at as a patient with Academy Medical Centre presenting with mental health and wellbeing needs, or substance use needs.

Your referral will be sent to the ECS mental health and wellbeing hub to decide what support will best meet your needs. The hub includes nurses, social workers, psychology, mental health and wellbeing peer support workers and community link workers.

The mental health referral screening hub aims to improve access to the right support at the right time. By spending time making sure your referral is seen by the right service or services, we can meet your needs quicker without having to tell your story to many different workers. We want you to be fully involved in your support and keep you informed of the progress of your referral.

Complete the Self-Referral Form to refer yourself to the service. Please email the completed form to tay.angusnwhub@nhs.scot or hand it in at the practice reception.

A member of hub staff will aim to contact you within 5 working days to advise you of the outcome of your referral.

The outcome of your referral may be:

• A telephone conversation to discuss your needs further and to advise you of the range of supports available in the community to support good mental health and wellbeing, self-management and prevention. This call will come from an NHS blocked number.
• You may be asked to complete some tasks while waiting for an appointment and this may include gathering information for the appointment, reading an article, or completing some helpful tools such as a mood diary or answering some questions. It is important that you complete what is asked before your appointment, and bring this to your appointment, to help us to support you better.

If your mental health and/or substance use gets worse while you are waiting for your appointment, and you believe your needs are more urgent, please contact the team you have been referred to, to let them know. The number will be on your appointment letter.

You may be seen by one or more of the services below – with your care being co-ordinated if you have complex needs:

The service will provide you with support from someone who has faced their own mental health and wellbeing challenges. The service has a young person’s 11-16 (of high school age) service and a 16+ service. The peer workers can provide emotional, practical and social support. They will help you to access further support if required and can help you find a range of self-help tools that may help improve your mental health & wellbeing. They will share with you strategies that have worked for them during difficult times.

Because of their own experience they can relate to people who are still struggling to improve their own mental health and wellbeing. The peer workers can provide inspiration and hope that it is possible to have a positive fulfilling future despite coping with significant challenges.

The service is aimed at people with less complex mental health and well-being challenges and will provide a maximum of three appointments.

Angus Adult Psychological Therapies team offer help to those with mild to moderate mental health problems. Our team consists of Clinical Psychologists, Counselling Psychologists, Clinical Associates in Applied Psychology, Accredited Psychological Therapists and Assistant Psychologists.

Treatment is provided in a number of ways: Supported self-help, Computer based therapy, Group treatment and Individual treatment. Most treatments will encourage you to: Explore your difficulties, Agree aims for treatment, Complete tasks between appointments and Learn how to cope with difficult situations.

Your first appointment will be an assessment appointment and will last up to 60 minutes. If the assessment indicates that you would benefit from psychological intervention, treatment options will be discussed with you. Individual sessions usually last between 45 minutes and an hour and group sessions last for up to 2 hours. Treatment is time limited, and you are likely to be seen for somewhere between 6 and 10 sessions. Progress depends on regular attendance. It is therefore important that you attend all appointments given to you.

The Community Mental Health Service provides treatment for people with moderate to severe mental health problems. Our aim is to encourage and empower people on their personal recovery journey: (Mental health and Wellbeing) The focus is on helping people to understand their difficulties and find new ways of approaching things. The team consists of Administration Staff, Clinical Psychologists, Community Mental Health Nurses, Community Support Workers, Consultant Psychiatrists and other medical staff, Occupational Therapists and Social Workers (Mental Health).

We carry out an in-depth assessment which includes gathering information about your past history, current mental state examination, risk assessment and risk management. The outcome of the in-depth assessment is to work with you to develop your personal Health and Wellbeing plan.

We provide person-centred care and treatment, tackling mental health challenges with hope and optimism. We will help you to recognise your strengths and work towards your aspirations. We will help you to learn to manage your mental health issues and work through your difficulties. We will also support you to find ways which enable you to develop and live a positive lifestyle.

During your treatment, we will encourage you to be actively involved in continuing your own Health and Wellbeing plan and looking at strategies for staying well.

The Angus Integrated Drug and Alcohol Recovery Service (AIDARS) is an integrated service comprising of both health and social work staff. We work in partnership with other agencies that support people with drug and/or alcohol problems and they are Tayside Council on Alcohol and Hillcrest Futures. We offer a person-centred, whole family approach to assessment and intervention with adults who would like to make changes to their drug or alcohol use.

Services we offer include:

• Strategies to build and maintain your motivation for change
• In-patient and community detoxification for alcohol or opiates
• Medically Assisted Treatments such as Methadone or Subutex
• Recovery care planning and self-directed support
• Overdose awareness (including Naloxone dispensing), harm reduction and Blood Borne Virus testing and support
• Relapse prevention in groups and one-to-one, supported by medication if required
• Psychological interventions
• Carer's support

We will discuss the referral at the Integrated Referral Hub (this is an Alcohol and Drugs Partnership (ADP) project that involves all drug and alcohol services) where your referral may be picked up by Tayside Council on Alcohol or Hillcrest futures. The best service to meet your needs will begin the assessment. We aim to provide a holistic initial assessment within 21 days of receiving your referral. At initial assessment, we will work with you in partnership to formulate a recovery plan that is based on your current goals. AIDARS also work closely with the third sector agencies and will help you explore which services will best support you with your worker.

A patient centred service offering support to patients to help identify Issues, concerns and barriers to make positive changes that affect their health, mental wellbeing and quality of life. The link worker will work collaboratively with the patient to meet the needs and interests of the person to help through decision making to address the issues they would like and to support to access services and activities they feel might help. This is a non-medical service that can address issues such as social isolation/loneliness, patients who are carers, looking for more support at home, financial concerns and much more.

Distress Brief Interventions (DBIs) are an innovative way of supporting people in distress. DBI consists of two parts, with part 1 seeing trained front-line health, police, paramedic and primary care staff help ease any individual. They then ask the person if they would like further support and, if they agree, they are referred to the DBI service with a promise of contact within the next 24 hours to start providing further face-to-face support.

Part 2 is provided by commissioned and trained third sector staff who contact the person within 24-hours of referral and provide community-based problem solving support, wellness and distress management planning, supported connections and signposting.

This service offers a range of wellbeing support options to empower people to manage their own wellbeing. Using a coaching approach, people are supported to shape and manager their own recovery through breaking goals into achievable steps.

This service is available to all adults living in Angus who experience thoughts of suicide or who may have attempted suicide. Support is also available for family members, carers or friends of adults experiencing suicidal thoughts. Telephone, email and face to face support is offered.