Specialist Older Adults Mental Health Service

Our teams are made up of professionals including Community Psychiatric Nurses (CPN’s), Social Workers, Care Managers, Occupational Therapists, Psychologists, Support Time Recovery Workers  and Psychiatrists.

Our Enhanced Duty Team (ENDU) is part of SOAMH’s and provides short term intensive support, treatment and interventions to people with a diagnosis of Dementia who have urgent complex needs.

We work with older adults with complex mental health needs and those with a diagnosis of dementia. 

Your General Practitioner (G.P) is the first point of contact if you are experiencing any mental health problems or are concerned about your mental health.  Your G.P can refer you to SOAMHS if they feel that you would benefit from some specialist support.

Once we've accepted your referral, a member of the team will get in contact with you either by telephone or letter to offer you an appointment. This may be with a Nurse, Occupational Therapist or a Psychiatrist.  We can meet people at our sites in Hove or East Brighton. We can also visit people in their homes if this is preferable. 

Some people prefer to have a friend or family member with them during the assessment.  Sometimes we may contact family members to organise the appointment if this is stated as a preference by the GP, for example if the person involved has memory or communication difficulties.

At the appointment we will discuss with you what support we feel could help you, and how we can offer this.

• Work flexibly alongside you and with the people who are important to you
• Listen without judgement.
• Provide you with all of the options available to you regarding your care and treatment

The Specialist Older Adults Mental Health Team work from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday.

The Enhanced Duty Team work from 9am to 7pm 7 days a week.

If you have concerns about a friend and family member who is cared for by the team you can contact us on 0300 3040080  for the West SOAMHS Team or 0300 3040092 for the East SOAMHS Team  and speak to the duty worker or the patient’s allocated worker. We may not be able to share any information with you due to confidentiality but we can listen and advise. There is more information about our confidentialiy policy here. 

If you need support as a carer we can direct you to where you get can some support. You can also access information about general support for carers and families here.

Brighton and Hove care Home Inreach Team are a specialist mental health team consisting of community mental health nurses, occupational therapists and  a Consultant psychiatrist.  We work in partnership with care and nursing homes to improve the quality of life of people with dementia. 

The aim of the Care Home Inreach (CHIR) service for dementia in Brighton and Hove is to work proactively with the whole care home sector to lead and drive improvements in quality of dementia care. 

• Improve the quality of care for dementia population in care homes in Brighton and Hove

• To ensure sustainable, long term improvements in delivery of care for people with dementia in the care home sector. 

• To ensure the health and wellbeing of the person with dementia through specialist assessment and on- going review of their mental health needs, using a person centred approach, whilst ensuring that the care home maintain or gain the skills to care for the patients appropriately. 

We work closely with other professionals such as GP’s, Brighton and Hove City Council, Care Agencies and other Community Services to try and provide the best possible care for our patients.  We also like to work closely with families and carers of those under our care but respect that this is your choice. 

If you need support out of our office hours you can call:

0300 304 0078 - Mental Health Rapid Response service which is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week for residents over the age of 18 in Brighton and Hove.

0300 5000 101 - Mental Health Helpline Monday to Friday 5pm to 9am, and 24 hours at weekends and Bank Holidays. 

116 123 - The Samaritans available 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

If you need urgent help and are concerned about an immediate risk of harm please call 999 or, if you are able, go to your nearest A&E.