NHS Talking Therapies is a talking therapy service for people affected by anxiety and depression. One of our trained health professionals will complete your assessment to help decide what would be of most help, either within NHS Talking Therapies, or from another service.

For more information about the service, visit the Talking Therapies website. 

We will contact your GP about the outcome of the assessment and may also need to communicate with other services if there are any risks to yourself or others.

It is essential that you are able to take the call in a private place and one that is free from distraction. We are unable to have the call if you are driving (even if using hands free technology). Please allow up to one hour for your assessment. Please note that if you do not attend your scheduled appointment you will be discharged from the service. 

During your telephone assessment we will be asking standard questions which will mean talking about sensitive information.   We do not have access to Medical or GP records so we may ask questions you have already told other health professionals. The type of questions we will ask you include:

  • Whether there are risks to yourself or others, such as, whether you have ever deliberately hurt yourself or other people and if you are currently having any thoughts of this kind. 
  • We will ask you to provide contact details of a friend/relative/partner. We need this information in case significant safety concerns arise during the course of therapy. We will discuss this in more detail at your assessment.
  • Whether you have previously or are currently experienced domestic violence or abuse. 
  • If you have children we ask you to share their names and dates of birth. It ensures we are in a position to consider everyone’s needs in the assessment.
  • Details of any other caring responsibilities you may have.
  • Whether you use drugs or alcohol, and if so, how this may impact on your treatment.

We understand, that some of these questions can be difficult and upsetting or possibly feel irrelevant for some people to have to think about. The purpose of these is to make sure we are able to identify the best and most appropriate care for you, therefore it would be helpful before your appointment that you have a think about what you would want to work on in therapy. Brief therapy is not always the most suitable treatment option. If this is the case, we will advise and direct you to other local services that may better suit your needs. 

NHS Talking Therapies sometimes works with partners to provide our NHS treatments. All providers offer the same quality and standard of care and you may be given an appointment with a therapist from any of these services. Appointments are allocated to ensure the shortest waits. If you are unable to make this appointment, you must contact us if you want to rearrange.