What to Expect

The first thing is to register (self-refer) with our service. The easiest way to do this is to register online [HERE]. Once we receive your referral, we can look to get you your first appointment booked.

The first appointment will be an initial assessment (usually lasting 45 minutes). This appointment is not the start of your ‘therapy’. It provides a chance for us to understand a bit more about the difficulties you are experiencing. Your assessment will be either face-to-face (GP surgery or Outlook offices) or by telephone. 

Assessment purpose: 

1. Information gathering
2. Providing an understanding of our service and our treatments
3. Ensuring relevant treatment options are discussed - (based on latest clinical guidelines)
4. Establishing if we are the most suitable service for your current needs. 
5. Signposting to other specialist services where required.

We will often suggest the least intrusive treatment option in the first instance. This may be one of the following: 

• Silvercloud 
• Groups / courses
• Guided self-help with a PWP (one-to-one)

Very often the treatment options above are enough for people to get their lives back on track and feeling better. In some instances you may receive more specific, intensive forms of therapy, which might include the following:

• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
• Psychological / Counselling Therapy
• EMDR

Due to the nature of our focussed, short-term work with you, it might be that your therapist asks you to do some work in-between sessions. This could include trying out a new technique, reading some information, practicing a breathing exercise or completing a thought/activity diary. In our experience the patients who actively engage in these tasks, often see the best results. To help get the most out of your sessions, we hope you can build a positive relationship with both therapist and Outlook South West. To help make this happen, both sides have responsibilities.

To find out more about this please - [CLICK HERE]

We sincerely hope you have a positive experience with us but in the event that you do not, we want to know. Our aim would be to put things right and learn from situations and try and improve for the future. We also like to hear about positive experiences, so don’t be afraid to tell us about how your therapy has been helpful as well.

If you are unhappy with any aspect of our services, please [CLICK HERE] to read how to take this further. 

At every appointment you will be asked to complete a questionnaire which measures low mood, anxiety and the impact of difficulties in your life. This enables both you and your therapist to monitor progress. 

We also use patient experience questionnaires (PEQ) to help us monitor how you feel about the services you have so far received. We usually ask you to complete these at your first and final appointments. 

When struggling, it is not uncommon for people to have difficult thoughts or feel hopeless. However, this is not the same as actually planning or taking steps to hurt yourself. We are not an emergency service so it is very important that you seek help from the right sources if you are having thoughts of hurting yourself. Your GP can be a really helpful point of contact in co-ordinating various sources of support. 

Community Mental Health Care Teams

8.30am to 6.30pm: CMHT 0845 207 7711 

6:30 pm – 8:30 am: Home treatment Team(s) 

East: 0845 2303901 West: 0845 2303902

Nightlink (5pm to Midnight) Freephone listening aged 18+

Freephone 0808 8000 306

Text line 07717 98902

The Samaritans (24 Hours) The Samaritans can be called at any time for anyone experiencing emotional distress 116 123  

Outlook South West provides Psychological Therapy as part of a nationwide programme. So that we and the NHS can make sure we are doing the best job possible, we need to collect information about patient treatment. What information do we have to collect? We collect information about you and the care you receive. This includes scores on questionnaires and information about your current problems. This helps your progress to be monitored and your care planned. Brief information which is relevant for improving your care is routinely shared with your GP. Information is only shared with other health and social care professionals where it is relevant for your care or there are serious concerns about safety for yourself or someone else. If you would like to know more about this, please speak to your therapist or contact our head office. How and what information is collected nationally? Some information is reported nationally to give a picture of how services compare across the country, to check that all quality standards are met. It is impossible to identify any individual person in the information used in national reports. Reports only show summary numbers, such as patients receiving different types of treatments. Other information checked nationally makes sure:

• Services are available to those who are eligible
• A range of evidence based treatments is provided
• Patients have positive experiences of services

How we keep your information safe? We store all information safely and securely. Data is collected under strict rules of confidentiality, as required by the Data Protection Act 1998, the Health and Social Care Act 2012, the NHS Care Record Guarantee and other guidance. If you wish to find out more, or to access your own records, please contact our office on 01208 871905, email us at enq@outlooksw.co.uk, or write to our head office, Outlook South West, 2D Restormel Estate, Lostwithiel, Cornwall PL22 0HG. Do we need to use your information? For accuracy it is important to report information from as many patients as possible. If you prefer your data to be left out please tell your therapist or our head office who will ensure your information is not used. This will not affect your treatment in any way.

We are able to offer a service to the large majority of people experiencing mental health distress. Broadly speaking, we can help with people who are going through problems of anxiety, stress and depression. However, some mental health problems fall outside of our NHS commissioned service. These include:

Substance dependence: People who are experiencing distress because they are currently addicted to drugs and alcohol

Bipolar Disorder and Psychoses: These are often severe mental health problems requiring help from the secondary care mental health services.

Behaviour posing significant risk to individuals: We provide relatively short-term psychological therapy. We are unable to provide the more intensive support required to monitor and manage serious levels of risk. We will refer you to the appropriate service if we believe your problems fall under this category.

Significant longstanding interpersonal difficulties (often called personality disorders): These problems can often involve a history  of frequent self-harm and stormy or chaotic relationships. These problems often require more specialist and longer-term psychological support and treatment. 

Problems involving ‘strongly held beliefs’: People with these problems know that the beliefs are mostly untrue, but nevertheless, they find it difficult to ‘shake’ them off or challenge them. (These problems can include, eating disorders, OCD and severe enduring depression that involve extreme beliefs). We would be happy to discuss your situation if you are unsure whether your problems fall into this category.