Mental health

Salus are proud to announce the arrival of the Kent Therapeutic Alliance (KTA) and the Kent Therapeutic Support Service (TSS). These services bring together trusted partners to offer a range of support tailored to children and young people who need advice and guidance or would like help to manage emotional well-being or mental health challenges.

Referral pathway:

There is a straightforward referral pathway for both services, which means that you can refer a child or young person by filling in a single form. The team will carefully review each referral and, where they are best placed to help, match children and young people with the right support.

Before making a referral, children, young people, families and professionals can look at the Get Help Now guide, which explains the different types of support available in Kent. These services are working towards the shared goal of helping children and young people get the right help, at the right time. 

If you feel that a referral to the KTA or TSS may be helpful, we encourage you to include as much information as possible to help us to understand what might need to happen next.

In the meantime, if you'd like to learn more and to make referral, visit: www.ktatss.co.uk

Urgent mental health support services:

Urgent mental health support.docx.

This leaflet can help support you when discussing SMI physical health checks with patients.

NHS Kent and Medway Talking Therapies is a free and confidential service for anyone in the region aged 17.5 and over.

The service supports patients experiencing mild to moderate mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, stress and panic.

A range of evidence‑based treatments are available, including cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), counselling for depression, and flexible options such as supported online therapy and weekly webinars.

Referral pathway:

To refer a patient, please complete the professionals' referral form.

There are two crisis recovery houses in Kent and Medway with a total of 11 beds. The first one opened in 2024. 

The Crisis Recovery Houses offer short-term residential mental health crisis interventions and support for a duration of up to 7 days, for individuals who are experiencing mental health crisis. Crisis houses can prevent hospital admission and ensure only those who are acutely unwell or at very high risk of suicide are admitted to an inpatient ward.

How to access:

Access to the crisis recovery houses is overseen and managed by the Mental Health Trust or AMHP service who undertake and assessment of all potential residents before referring them into the service.

The crisis houses are not a clinical service they are staffed by VCSE organisations.

The crisis houses are supported by the secondary mental Health trust who provide clinical input and support to the service. In addition there are fortnightly operational meetings and monthly performance monitoring.

The project is part of the mental health urgent and emergency care transformation and is open to all Kent and Medway residents.

Live Well Kent and Medway provides free mental health support for younger people and adults.

They act as a first point of contact to access a wide network of local voluntary organisations and charities in the local area to help better manage mental health and wellbeing. We support people to gain confidence, meet new people, advice with finances, debt or benefit, support with housing concerns (not available in Medway), access free therapy and counselling-type services, find work, volunteering and education opportunities and join activities and support groups run by people with similar experiences.

Read the flyer to find out more on the types of the support Live Well offer.

Website: www.livewellkent.org.uk 

Take Off provide groups in east Kent for people who are aged 16 and over in need of support but not in a crisis.

The groups are for people who are aged 16 and over and need support but are not in crisis.

People may attend if they are experiencing:

• loneliness
• no mental health diagnosis but experiencing difficulties such as low mood
• living with a diagnosis, for example Bipolar, CED, Anxiety, Depression, Schizophrenia
• living with a neurodiversity diagnosis
• waiting for a diagnosis of ADHD or ASC.

Our groups are available in:

• Ashford
• Canterbury
• Dover
• Folkestone
• Thanet
• online.

Groups include, but are not limited to:

• Managing depression and anxiety
• creative group
• cooking on a budget
• digital inclusion
• managing pain
• awaiting diagnosis (ASC and ADHD).

Referral pathway: 

Please complete the professionals referral form.

Patients can also self‑refer using the contact form.

Take off will contact the person within 3 business days.

Kooth is a free, safe, and anonymous online platform, available to anyone between the ages of 10-25 in Kent and Medway.

Kooth offers a comprehensive range of services specially designed to offer young people support in different ways.

Website: kooth.com.