South West Primary Care Mental Health Team

About the service

The Primary Care Mental Health Team (PCMHT) provides a range of services to individuals aged 18+.

Our aim is:

• To improve access to prompt advice and support

• To enable you to receive help in a familiar setting

• To help deliver a more joined-up approach to your care

• To provide holistic care with appropriate evidence-based interventions

• To ensure the right treatment in the right place at the right time from the right person, based on your needs.

What we do

We support those who are struggling with their emotional wellbeing or experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties.

We are unable to support those who are already supported by secondary mental health services or where the primary issue is substance use, learning disability or neurodiversity.

How do we support you?

We aim to promote a person-centred approach to physical and mental health. Initially, we will contact you and either provide telephone advice or offer an assessment. You will then be greeted by one of our practitioners for an assessment - which should last approximately an hour. This can be offered either face to face, via telephone or online in order to help you feel most comfortable. Together, we will come up with a plan for your care and consider the next steps to take, which could include:

• Signposting to other services or organisations e.g. counselling

• Advice on treatment 

• Brief interventions of up to 6 sessions to help you manage mental health challenges

• Onward referrals to other services or organisations

We will support you to focus on your goals and to access your local community resources. 

Who might help with my care?

• Lead Mental Health Practitioners and Mental Health Practitioners, who are experienced professionals from social work, occupational therapy, or nursing backgrounds. 

• Wellbeing Assessors are employed by Solent Mind to support you on a one-to-one basis to help you understand your situation and needs, and to devise a plan of how to reach the right support. They can support you to develop tools and techniques to manage your wellbeing. 

• Peer Support Workers are employed by Solent Mind to use their lived experience of mental health challenges to help you in your recovery, based on your goals.

• And the adjacent roles:

  • Health & Wellbeing Coaches who assist you to identify and achieve goals and use a coaching model to help you make behavioural changes. Their wish is to empower you to manage your own health more effectively

  • Social Prescribers who aim to connect you to activities, groups, and services in the community to help support your social, emotional and practical needs.

Accessing the service

All requests for our service come via your GP practice.

Once the request has been made, we will contact you and either provide telephone advice or offer an assessment.

Your consent to our input with your care is paramount and should be obtained by your GP before they make any request for our service involvement.

We may also ask for your consent to refer you to other services. Similarly, consent to share information with these services will be requested.

We will only share information with those involved in your care. You may withdraw your consent at any time.