Bridges Primary Care Mental Health team (Bridges PCMHT)

Please note, this isn't a crisis service. If you're having suicidal thoughts phone your GP or NHS 24 on 111. Alternatively, you can phone Breathing Space on 0800 83 85 87 or Samaritans on 116 123.

Bridges PCMHT is a short-term psychological service. We work with people who have mild to moderate mental health difficulties. We support adults who are age 18 and over to help develop their coping skills and improve their mood. Our therapists and counsellors deliver proven and effective ways to help you self-manage symptoms and deal with feelings that are impacting on your life.

We can help you with common mental health difficulties, such as depression, panic attacks, stress and anxiety disorders.  As a short-term psychological service, we generally offer 6 to 8 sessions. This may involve learning strategies to manage distressing emotions, or developing new ways of approaching challenges in your life.

Services we provide

• Virtual Courses: All of our group CBT courses are currently delivered online and each course will incorporate the key characteristics of individually delivered CBT. 
• Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) (a psychological approach that links how we feel with the way we think and the way we behave). All of our CBT courses are delivered online and each course will incorporate the key characteristics of individually delivered CBT. Therapy may focus on identifying what has maintained your difficulties and how we can interrupt these 'vicious cycles'

CBT aims to help you deal with overwhelming problems in a more positive way by breaking them down into smaller parts. You will learn how to identify and change negative patterns to improve the way you feel. Home practice is an important component of CBT. Developed collaboratively during therapy sessions, home practice is used to rehearse new skills, practice coping strategies, and restructure unhelpful beliefs.

• Counselling
  
  Counselling is a psychotherapeutic approach led by you, which is helpful to a wide range of people with many different issues. Life transitions, low mood, anxiety, relationship issues and loss are some types of issue that you may need to speak about in a safe, dedicated space with your counsellor.

How do I access the service?

You can be referred to our service by your GP or other health care professional or you can self-refer.

Eligibility criteria

To be eligible for the Bridges to Wellbeing service you must:

• be aged 18 or older
• registered to a GP in the East Renfrewshire area

Please note, we're unable to accept referrals from third parties, family members or friends. If you're concerned about a loved one please contact their GP.

If you're a health or social care professional and wish to refer someone to our service, forward us a referral letter or make a referral through SCI Gateway.

Before you start

Therapy works best when focused on what you want to achieve so that at the end of therapy you can see real changes. For this reason, it is helpful before your first session if you consider the following questions:

• What would you like to achieve in therapy?
• How will you know if therapy has been successful?
• What would get in the way of you achieving your goals?

Self refer online

What happens next ?

You'll be sent an appointment via text message within approximately 4 weeks. The appointment involves a telephone or video screening assessment to find out your current difficulties, what you hope to achieve in therapy and options which may help.

The appointment will last around 45 minutes.

The type of treatment you receive will be decided on basis of the assessment. If our team believe you could benefit from our service, you'll be placed on a waiting list for therapy.  If Bridges is not the most suitable service we can signpost you to alternatives where available.

If you need more help filling out this form phone 0141 451 0590 Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm.