Trent PTS IAPT

Treatment Agreement

Please read carefully as your therapist will ask you to verbally confirm you have read and understood this information.

We would like to welcome you to Trent PTS. We hope that this treatment agreement will help you to understand how we can work together successfully. Our aim is to provide effective, evidence-based psychological treatment to help you achieve your goals.

Attendance and commitment

Regular attendance of agreed sessions is essential to reaching your therapy goals. We ask you to ensure that you prioritise therapy and attend all sessions that have been agreed with your therapist; this will ensure you gain the most benefit possible from your course of treatment. Your treatment will involve regular agreed scheduled sessions with your therapist; each meeting will generally be between 30 minutes and an hour.

Sessions may vary in frequency, as agreed between you and your therapist, so it is important to diarise each session and ensure you have made plans to allow you to attend. For example, arranging child care or shift planning at work.

Appointment times may be between 9.00am and 8.00pm, Monday to Wednesday and 9.00am and 5.00pm Thursday and Friday. It is important to arrive on time as your therapist is unable to extend your session beyond the scheduled time if you arrive late. If your appointment is via telephone or video it is important you are available for the session at the agreed time.

Consistent lateness and failure to commit to regular attendance can result in you being discharged from our service. Please treat your sessions as you would any medical appointment. If you need to reschedule an appointment, we ask you to give us as much notice as possible. If you do miss, cancel or ask to reschedule two appointments for any reason, even if notice is given, this will result in your treatment being ended and you will be discharged from the service. If you are discharged from the service you may re-refer after a 12-week period from the date of your discharge.

If you are unable to attend a booked appointment, please contact us by telephone on 01332 265 659 or by email on enquiries@trentpts.co.uk, or directly to your therapist by prior agreement.

Getting the most from your treatment

As we provide brief/short-term therapy we want you to get the very best from your time with us. Therefore, it is important for you to consider what you would like to get from your sessions each week.

At your assessment appointment, your therapist will explore what options may be most suitable for you. We will endeavour to take your choice of the kind of therapy you would prefer into account, but please note, we will only therapy options to you that are clinically recommended based on your presenting problem.

During your treatment you will likely be asked to do some additional work between sessions to compliment the work with your therapist.

Communication between you and your therapist is important within your treatment and we ask you to please keep your therapist up to date with any changes in details or situations.

We also make use of digital support products to enhance your treatment options. These will be offered to you, if appropriate, following your assessment. Please ask if you fell any of these would be beneficial to you.

Remote Sessions

If you are accessing your session remotely, via video or telephone, it is important you have access to a safe, private and confidential space, free of distractions and noises to conduct the session. We will not be able to go ahead with the appointment if you are using hands-free equipment while driving, for example. Please do not be tempted to multi-task, and ensure that you are able to fully engage to make the most of these sessions. Your therapist may advise you the appointment cannot go ahead if you are not in a private, confidential space. This will count as an appointment not-attended.

Progress and Feedback

You will be asked to complete some brief questionnaires at each session. This is essential for us to monitor your progress towards recovery, to ensure we are providing the right treatment for you, and for our service to evaluate its clinical effectiveness. Most patients find tracking their progress very helpful. These questionnaires can be completed online via the IAPT portal, prior to your session; please ask a member of staff for details how to do this.

If, during regular review, we can see that your symptoms have reduced to a recovered level we will discuss bringing sessions to and end with you. Similarly, if sessions do not appear to be leading to improvements in symptoms, we will discuss with you how to respond to this, which might also include bringing sessions to an end and giving guidance on alternative treatment options to discuss with your GP.

We will ask you to complete a feedback questionnaire after your assessment, and again at the end of your treatment. We use these to improve the service we offer to you, and would appreciate you completing this, either with your therapist, or over the phone with our admin team, or by following a text message link that will be sent to you.

Confidentiality

We would like to assure you that the content of your therapy sessions will be handled confidentially and in accordance with the professional standards to which we adhere. Records that are kept about your treatment will be handled, stored and processed securely within our computer data-base, as required by the NHS. There are occasions where it may be helpful or necessary for your therapist to contact or consult your GP or another Professional. This would normally be discussed with you first and you may be asked to give your permission to this process.

If we do have concerns about the safety or welfare of yourself or others, our duty of care would require us to pass this information on and this would be an exception to the confidentiality statement above; your therapist will discuss this further with you in your first session.

For more information, our privacy statement can be found at https://www.trentpts.co.uk/privacy-statement.

Please note, at Trent PTS, we are a training and development organisation which means we frequently support a high number of trainees who are enrolled on an accredited and registered programme. There may therefore be times we will ask if the session cab be audio or video recorded for training purposes, or have a trainee observe the therapist in your session. We will always ask your permission before we do this, and it is completely your choice if you consent to this.



If you require any further clarification about this therapy agreement prior to committing to attending therapy, please contact us on 01332 265 659 or raise the issue with your therapist at your first session, who will be happy to discuss this with you.

Your therapist will ask for confirmation that you verbally agree to the terms of this agreement at your first appointment.

Please note we operate a zero tolerance of abuse towards any staff member at Trent PTS. Those found to be abusing staff or displaying dangerous or threatening behaviour towards our staff will be asked to withdraw from the service without warning.