What happens at an appointment

You can choose whether to have appointments via video call or in person at the John Parkes Unit on Newton Road in Torquay.

Getting to know you – assessment

If you are coming to see us for the first time this is usually called an ‘assessment’ (don’t worry this doesn’t mean it is a test). These appointments usually last an hour to an hour and a half. We would usually ask you to come to the appointment with your parents or carers. If you are a young person we will also give you the opportunity to talk without your parents or carers in the room, but you do not have to if you do not want to, it is your choice.

During this appointment we want to get to know you better and to understand how things are going for you. We might do this by drawing, playing, listening and talking together. We will talk about if there is anything that we can work on together to try to make things better. We can then make a plan about what we can do next.

Confidentiality – keeping your personal information private

We will ask you what information you want to share with other people. We will tell your doctor that we have met with you for an appointment – but we do not tell other people what you have said without asking you first. The only exception to this is if we have concerns about your safety. With your permission, it may be helpful for us to talk with the people who support you, for example your school, Social Worker, Nurses, or Health Visitor.

What might happen next

Together we might make the decision what we are not the best service to support you and your family. If this was the case we would talk with you about other services that might be able to support you.

If we all agree that having an appointment with a member of our team would be helpful then we will add you to the waiting list for follow up appointments.

Follow up appointments

When you are at the top of the waiting list we will book an appointment with you by letter or over the phone. Follow up appointments will be held via video call or in person at the John Parkes Unit in Torbay. These are normally an hour but can be shorter or with regular breaks to suit you.

During follow up intervention appointments we would work with you and your family on goals that you set.

As a team we work in lots of different ways to help support you; intervention appointments might include talking, drawing, playing or other ways of being creative.