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Evaluation of a community based service for urgent psychiatric assessment

Department of Psychological Medicine, Maudsley Hospital

Dora Kohen, Consultant Psychiatrist^*

2nd Floor, East Wing, Homerton Hospital, Homerton Row, London E9 6SR

Joy Dalton, Consultant Psychiatrist

Whittington Hospital, Highgate Hill, London N19 5NF

^* Correspondence

The Urgent Assessment Service (UAS) was set up to provide community based urgent psychiatric assessment to a range of referrers. The work of the service was assessed over a six month period. Results show that it was popular with a broad range of medical and non-medical professionals. Patients generally presented with depression or psychotic illnesses and those referred from non-medical sources were more likely to be suffering from schizophrenia and assessed as being at least as unwell as those referred by GPs and hospital based doctors. Rates of referral to hospital services were low with the vast majority of patients being referred back to their general practitioner after initial assessment and treatment.