Emergency referrals (those patients who require to be seen the same day for reasons of significant risk) should generally be directed to the Mental Health Assessment Team (MHAT) at New Craigs Hospital. MHAT can assess which treatment, including inpatient treatment is most appropriate. Non-emergency referrals should be made to the sector Community Mental Health Team (CMHT) via the single point of referral. Sometimes it can be difficult to establish if a presentation is related to a mental state condition or a personality disorder (or both). In these circumstances, referral to the CMHT for clarification of diagnosis is reasonable. Other situations when referral to the CMHT might be considered include when the patient is unable to be managed solely in primary care because of issues of severity, complexity, co-morbidity or risk; or when the person’s personality appears to be acting as a vulnerability factor to mental illness.

Useful referral information includes:

• whether the general criteria for personality disorder are met, with some description of severity
• an outline of the difficulties experienced by the patient in the four main domains:

• • cognitive-perceptual
  • affective
  • interpersonal
  • relationship with self including sense of self
  • interpersonal relationships
  • relationship with society
  • behavioural/impulse control (including self-harm and suicidal behaviour)

• concurrent physical and mental health conditions
• appropriate risk assessment, perhaps using a structured tool such as STORM
• STORM training can be found here