Adult mental health service

Our mental health social care teams assess, support and review care for people with significant mental health conditions.

The aim of our service is to empower those people to make choices that promote:

• Wellbeing
• Resilience
• Independence

We support those with more complex needs to create care and support plans that:

• Maximise their abilities
• Enable them as individuals to make choices
• Enable them to work towards their identified goals

We provide the service in a range of places. This includes people's own homes, community settings and hospitals.

We work with key partners such as Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT). Most teams are co-located with the NSFT Adult Recovery service.

Making a referral

Care Act assessment

We might offer you a Care Act Assessment if you have asked for our help and we think you'd benefit from having one. 

In this assessment we'll consider your social care needs and how these affect your wellbeing. Your social care needs include:

• Personal care such as being able to get washed and dressed, cook a meal and do the shopping
• Managing money
• Getting out of the house
• Keeping safe
• Staying in touch with family and friends

We assess both service users and carers under the Care Act to determine eligibility.

You can also request an assessment on behalf of someone you care for.

This is most easily done through filling out our contact form. Contact our adult social care team to access the form.

Mental Health Act assessments

A Mental Health Act Assessment takes place to decide whether someone should be detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act 1983. This is to make sure they receive care and medical treatment for a mental disorder.

Approved mental health practitioners and doctors carry out these assessments.

Requests for these assessments are also generally made by professionals. Under this Act, someone defined as the nearest relative can ask for a Mental Health Act assessment.

Contact our adult social care team to find out how to contact us about an assessment.

If the circumstances are urgent, call the Customer Service Centre on 0344 8008020.

The organisation of the service

There are five locality teams within Adult Mental Health:

• South
• North
• Norwich
• East
• West

Each team has a team manager who leads, manages and oversees the work of the team. Each team also has the following roles:

• Practice consultant
• Social workers
• Assistant practitioners
• Business support

The service also includes five other teams, listed below.

Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) service

This team has:

• A service manager
• Practice consultants
• Dedicated AMHP social workers
• An AMHP monitoring officer
• A training consultant
• Business support

Their role is to receive daytime requests for Mental Health Act assessments and triage. This is a county-wide team covering all-age service user groups.

Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) service

This team has:

• A team manager
• Practice consultants
• Best interest assessors
• Business support

They receive referrals from hospitals and care homes where a person cannot consent to their care. They will need an assessment to authorise the care in their best interests.

This is a county-wide service across all service user groups. Referrals to the DoLS service are generally made through health and care professionals.

The hospital discharge social work team

This team has its base at Hellesdon and contains:

• A team manager
• Practice consultant
• Social workers
• Assistant practitioners

They work with the wards to help safe and timely hospital discharges. This team works with:

• People aged 18 to 64 at the time of referral
• People already supported by the locality mental health social care teams

The accommodation-based review team

This team has:

• A team manager
• Social workers
• Assistant practitioners

They review people placed in residential care and supported living to ensure they are:

• Receiving the right level of care
• Receiving support to move on when ready

The team works with those with accommodation-based care funded by the locality mental health social care teams.

People from Abroad team

This team has:

• A service manager
• Practice consultants
• Social workers
• Development workers
• Other specialised roles relating to their work

Their role is to work with:

• Asylum seekers
• Migrants
• People and families with no recourse to public funds
• People living Norfolk under government resettlement schemes
• People from outside the UK who find themselves destitute

This is a county-wide service. Referrals to this team are generally made through health and care professionals.

Switching between children's services and adult services

A child under 18 receiving a service may need support into adulthood. If this is the case, they should get a referral from age 15 onwards for an initial Care Act assessment.

The Preparing for Adult Life team completes transition work on behalf of the mental health locality social care teams.