Seeing Someone Who Will Help Me

After you have discussed a course of action with the duty worker, and you need to see someone from the community mental health centre, then an appointment will be made for you to see a member of staff.

This appointment will decide what help you require so that the service can establish the best way of working with you.

If it is decided by the duty worker (or, if it is after hours, the inpatient unit from your nearest hospital) that you need CAT service involvement, then you and your family or carer will usually be contacted by telephone by the CAT service on-call worker.

This person will probably ask you to describe your problems, ask how you would like them to help you and let you know how the CAT service might assist-for example, when they can visit or where they will meet you.

The CAT service may visit you a number of times a day over a few weeks and, if it seems that you need ongoing treatment and support, you will be put back in contact with the community mental health centre.

The staff member at the community mental health centre who has the major responsibility for working with you is called a case manager. You may also have regular contact with other professionals, including doctors, social workers, psychologists, psychiatric nurses or occupational therapists.

It is important for you to know that everyone receiving clinical support from public mental health services will be assigned a case manager, so that:

• They are assisted through the range of public mental health services available to them.
• They have a clinical staff member working with them to make sure they receive the services that are most appropriate for their needs.