Mental Health Crisis Advice (Isle of Wight)

Access to all mental health services on the Isle of Wight is provided by one 24/7 specialist assessment team called the Single Point of Access Service (SPA). The SPA team conduct all crisis (within 12 hours), Urgent (within 72 hrs) and Non Urgent (within 28 days) assessments on the Isle of Wight. Their primary purpose is mental health clinical triage and face to face comprehensive assessments of mental health presentations. The SPA service also cover out of hours mental health assessments for patients admitted to the ED Department at St Mary’s Hospital and police liaison work through the Serenity initiative.

SPA conduct structured risk assessments, comprehensive biopsychosocial assessments and identify treatment pathways for service users who will require specialist secondary care. The service also signposts to alternative help and provision if this is thought more appropriate to a person’s needs. This can include recommendations for self-referral to the primary care based Improving Access to Psychological Therapies Service (IAPT) or onward referral to social care and voluntary sector help.

The SPA service is based at Sevenacres Mental Health Unit, St Mary’s Hospital Newport. The service operates 24/7 throughout the year and the crisis phone line is staffed by clinicians.The SPA service is an open access team that will accept self referrals from the public, requests for crisis intervention from service users open to CMHS out of hours and requests for advice from partner agencies.