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A-Z of Mental Health
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PALS (Patient Advisory & Liaison Service)
Provides service users, their carers and families with advice, information and support to resolve immediate concerns about care and treatment and to seek solutions to difficulties . The service can often resolve immediate concerns by raising them with the care professional concerned. It will often refer more complex cases to advocacy agencies. PALS offices are available in all hospital settings.
Access: Search the LAMP Directory for PALS offices.
Patient & Public Involvement
Patient and public involvement is about empowering patients and the public to have a say in how services are run, It is also about people in the NHS working differently and listening to and acting upon the views of patients and the public. Patient and public involvement improves patients’ experiences of the NHS.
Patient & Public Involvement Forums
PPI Forums exist throughout the NHS to help gather the process of gathering local views and feeding them back into Trusts
Practice Therapists
Practice therapists are situated in GP Practices as part of the Common Mental Health Problems Service . They provide assessment and therapy for people with more common mental health problems, ie depression, anxiety, phobias and stress. Where necessary they can recommend alternative help or referral to psychiatric services. Practice therapists usually have some training in mental health, in addition to a qualification in counselling or psychotherapy.
Access: Usually through social service professionals or GP.
Primary Care Trusts (PCT’s)
Primary Care Trusts (PCT’s) commission services from a range of different providers to address the health needs of the local community. Each PCT has a lead responsibility for a particular service area on behalf of all other PCT’s. Melton, Rutland and Harborough PCT has the responsibility for mental health services, although each PTC has a mental health lead to assist in the provision of mental health services in their local area.
Access: Search the LAMP Directory
Psychologist
Clinical or Chartered Psychologists undertake extensive and specific training in psychological functioning and development. They have a key role in assessing a person s ability to function in terms of thinking, remembering and understanding, and personality traits. They do not prescribe medication but use a range of talking treatments in a group or individual context. They often work in community mental health teams
Psychotherapist/Psychoanalyst/Counsellor
These roles relate to each of the three main types of talking treatment —psychotherapy, psychoanalysis and counselling. They differ in terms of the methods used, the intensity and length of treatment, and in the training the therapists receive. A service user may have individual treatment or group therapy. Groups may deal with specific problems, for example grief, anxiety, violence or shyness. (See also Counsellor).