Where To Refer Patients In The Field Of Psychotherapy?
The referral of patients is a very present reality in the field of psychotherapeutic assistance services; It happens relatively frequently that, for one reason or another, it is necessary to interrupt therapy in the place where the patient is attending and recommend that they attend another place, facilitating this transition as much as possible.
This should not be seen as a failure; Having to refer a patient to another team of mental health experts is knowing how to adapt to a reality in which not all places are suitable to help any type of person. Above all, taking into account that part of psychotherapy consists of discovering things about the root of the emotional or behavioral problem of those who need professional help.
But… Where to refer patients in the field of psychotherapy? In the following lines we will address this issue on the basis that when referring a patient, the well-being of this person must be given priority, although this is not incompatible with the search for formulas to simplify this process.
How to choose where to refer patients for psychological therapy
These are the main criteria and guidelines that it is advisable to take into account when referring patients in the context of psychotherapeutic care:
1. Select only duly accredited centers
Given that in the Spanish context the practice of Psychology in the clinical and health field is regulated to guarantee quality standards, it is necessary that the professional who refers a patient Avoid transitioning to a center that does not offer these guarantees. In this sense, it is important to actively get involved in knowing if the place you are considering to refer the patient has properly trained professionals with a university degree in Psychology/Medicine and the corresponding specializations in psychotherapeutic care; even if the patient is not aware that these quality criteria exist.
2. Process automation is key
It is preferable in all cases to have the patient referral system to other mental health care centers as automated as possible. In this sense, networks of psychological and psychiatric assistance centers such as Mentalia are a great help, given that by having a wide diversity of specializations and locations, the chances are maximized that the person who needs help can be attended to in a matter of days even if you have been attending online therapy sessions and live in another city.
3. Make sure there are no language barriers
In the event that the therapy has been developed online, or if the place where the psychotherapist is based has several languages, it must be ensured that the difference in languages will not be an impediment to the transmission of information between a person. center and the next. Ultimately, any patient referral process must be accompanied by a diagnostic report or a document with the therapist’s observations that derives
It is true that knowing another psychotherapist personally can make things easier in some cases; However, nowadays limiting ourselves to this type of informal contacts is too limiting, and there is a risk of falling into what is known as Illusionary Thinking, in which the person deceives themselves by forcing reality to fit what they like. It is convenient for convenience (in this case, maintaining an optimistic bias about the ability of that other psychologist to adequately treat the person being referred).
Mentalia Salud: the network of reference mental health centers
Mentalia Health is an organization that bases its work on psychotherapeutic and psychiatric intervention services through a wide network of Mental Health Centers, Residential Centers, Psychiatric Hospitals, Psychosocial Rehabilitation Centers and sheltered housing distributed throughout Spain.
As such, it has professionals in all areas of care for patients with psychopathologies, using a comprehensive care model; and also for this reason, it is an option that offers simplicity and full guarantees in the process of referring patients, since it offers the certainty that in its network of specialists there will always be professionals capable of offering an intervention tailored to what the person needs.
