Mental health

Please see the Dorset HealthCare NHS trust website which is the gateway to information about Mental Health and Learning Disability Services in East Dorset and surrounding areas and specialist services across Dorset.

The Gateway Team

Our patients are now able to self refer to this important new service- see Gateway team

Poole Book Prescription Scheme

The scheme has been running since 2005 and has proved to be a very successful in allowing people with mild or moderate common mental health problems to get access to self-help materials. Please see our separate book prescription page for full details.

Counselling

We no longer have in-house counselling as that work has been taken over by the Gateway team.

Depression

Doctors understand that depression is a problem suffered by many but perceive that it is often poorly understood by our patients who can be taken aback when the diagnosis is proposed. It is frequently the cause of symptoms which do not fit the pattern of a physical disease.

A very interesting paper from Australia looked at "Delivering interventions for depression by using the internet" and found very positive results.  It was published in the British Medical Journal in January 2004.  Links to the websites used are given below:

• Blue pages
• the MoodGYM

Emotional processing

The Dorset Research and Development Unit have published a web site which hopes to increase the awareness of mind-body links in health and illness.  Emotional processing refers to the way we cope with or absorb negative life events so that they do not continue to affect our lives perhaps an "emotional immune system".  If this process is impeded it could have an adverse effect on our psychological and physical health.

Distress & Wellbeing Project

Help & Care has started a new project which aims to provide psychosocial support to Older People across Bournemouth, Poole, East Dorset and Christchurch.  

‘Distress & Wellbeing’ is about working with people who find themselves in distressing circumstances and may be feeling so worried or low in mood that it is affecting the way they live.

WHAT IS THE PROJECT AIMING TO DO?

There are often several reasons contributing to the distress that people feel, for example a person may have experienced a bereavement, undergone major life changes such as moving house, returned home from hospital after several weeks, have to cope with caring for a loved one.

As a team we think we can help by talking about these difficulties and then working together to find possible solutions. This might involve practical support or support in beginning to come to terms with these major life changes.

WHO ARE THE TEAM?

There are two workers, Gary Finch and Nicky Ford, from Help and Care involved in the D&W project. In addition, there are several volunteers who also help out with some of the project aims.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM A FIRST SESSION?

The first appointment usually lasts about an hour and in most cases we can visit people at their homes. It’s helpful to use this time to get to know each other and work together to understand how the person has come to feel the way they do. All the information discussed is treated confidentially. If the person feels that further sessions are unlikely to be helpful, we can try to redirect them to other services which might be of more help.