Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin

Outpatient service

We are delivering significantly reduced services and all routine referrals / assessments are suspended.

Urgent referrals are being triaged by telephone and all patients are being risk assessed with telephone support or monitoring of weight and blood chemistry being provided as necessary. 

Carer support groups have ceased, but additional telephone support will be offered if needed.

The Team are now operating a mixture of face to face and virtual or telephone appointments and reviews. We will be wearing a minimum of a face mask when visiting, unless the visit can be held outside. More PPE may need to be worn depending on the situation. We continue to support people to transition from inpatient wards to the community and our Experts by Experience and Peer Recovery Support worker are back in work and starting to see people either face to face or virtually/ via the telephone. As we are following regularly changing advice, this may need to alter at short notice and we will be in contact individually with everyone who is recieving care from our team.

Our visiting protocol on all sites continues to be restricted and with the emergence of new variants we must still remain cautious. However, as the roadmap out of lockdown continues this will be continually reviewed. We are very happy to safely facilitate visits, but we also have a duty to keep our patients well.

If you are wishing to visit you will have to liaise with the appropriate ward to make the arrangements in advance. For such a visit to take place you will need to obtain a negative Covid test in the 72 hours before visiting, and produce a text message, email or photo to staff as evidence of a negative test result. You can have either a Lateral Flow test or the PCR to assure the clinical team on arrival.

We regret we can only facilitate one visitor at a time.

All visitors will be required to wear a fluid resistant mask (surgical mask) which we will provide. The Ward will provide appointment slots for your visit, The ward will let you know  what to expect when you see your loved one, and give practical advice about handwashing, social distancing (keeping 2 meters apart) and so on. We know this may be hard but it is important to protect all of our patients. If visits can be facilitated outside, this will be our preference.

Indoor visits will take place in a well-ventilated room, with windows and doors open where it is safe to do so, the room will only used by one patient and their visitor at a time, they will be subject to regular enhanced cleaning and ventilation between visits. Any areas used by visitors will be decontaminated after each visit and several times throughout the day.

If you are showing symptoms of coronavirus we ask you not to visit, even if these symptoms are mild or intermittent, due to the risk they pose to others. Where a face-to-face visit is not practical then we can support virtual visits which can be facilitated through the Microsoft Teams platform.

Where can I get a test done?

Staff will direct you to your local area test sites to secure an appropriate test. Alternatively it is easy to find the details of your local site on-line, when you attend they will be happy to test you if you explain it is for a hospital visit.

We regret we have limited supply of lateral flow tests and these are prioritised for MPFT staff so we cannot test you ourselves.

Child Visiting

We are pleased to let you know that we can now facilitate child visiting again. One child at a time will be allowed to visit accompanied by one adult. The child must wear a fluid resistant (surgical) face mask if they are over the age of 11. We would also recommend this for those children between the ages of 3-11 if they can tolerate it.

In very exceptional circumstances we will consider more than one child visiting at a time, but we will review this on an individual basis.

We will keep you updated when the situation changes and we can facilitate visits more easily.

Finally we want to wish you well at this difficult time, and thank you for the support you give to your loved ones and the staff.

The Liaison and Diversion service is operational within custody suites in line with government Coronavirus guidance.

Liaison and Diversion Outreach staff will offer telephone support when the individual concerned is released into the community, and face to face contacts where need is indicated and a risk assessment is completed.

The children’s offender health service is fully operational supporting children and their families in line with government guidance.

Despite ongoing pressures on health and social care, mental health services will continue to operate much as usual and to provide a 24/7 urgent NHS telephone line that can respond to any mental health queries that you may have.

This service is available to anyone of any age.

If you need to call please dial for free on:  0808 196 4501.

The in-patient wards at the Redwoods Centre will continue to provide care and treatment as normal, although visiting is restricted – please check directly with the hospital on 01743 210000 before visiting.

With regard to people currently receiving community mental health care services these will continue to be provided.  There may be occasions when some appointments need to be rescheduled or alternative support offered such as a telephone call:

• If you are currently under the care of a mental health team, the care that you receive will continue much as before and you should contact your care team as normal with any queries.  

• The Dementia Care service will also continue unaltered and the team can be contacted as normal.

• Our IAPT services, which support people with mild to moderate mental health issues such as anxiety or low mood, are open and available. Currently, due to the Coronavirus pandemic, assessment and therapy (both individual and group sessions) are being carried out via telephone or online except in exceptional circumstances. You can speak to your GP or self refer into the services and you can also directly access our online therapy programme, Silvercloud.
  For more information https://shropshireiapt.mpft.nhs.uk/ or https://twiapt.mpft.nhs.uk/

• The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (called BeeU) will continue to provide face to face contact when required and provide telephone as well as video consultations.

• The Children’s Society service (BEAM) will continue to provide a telephone call back service which can be requested by email at:  AskBeam@childrenssociety.org.uk
  Please note:
  Young people aged 14 and over can email and request support themselves.
  Young people aged 13 and under will need a Parent or Carer to email on their behalf.

• Kooth will continue to provide an anonymous 24-hour online service offering peer support, self-help and have trained counsellors to talk to. Anyone aged 11-25, living in Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin, can register to access this service and you don’t need to be referred or have an appointment. Whilst the website is available 24 hours, there will be someone to talk to online at the following times:
  • 12:00 to 22:00 (Monday to Friday)
  • 18:00 to 22:00 (Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holidays)

For more information visit Kooth – www.kooth.com
 

The information on this page will be updated should any of these arrangements change.

Learning Disability services are working differently during Coronavirus. To find out how the Learning Disability Teams are working click below

https://mpft2.franktesting.co.uk/service-users-carers/coronavirus-information/coronavirus-information-people-learning-disabilities

Appointments are currently being offered virtually with some face-to-face appointments being undertaken.