Frequently asked questions

The first appointment will be for an assessment. This may be conducted over the phone or face to face. You will have the opportunity to talk about your difficulties. This helps us decide whether you need the kind of help this service offers. You will also have an opportunity to ask any questions you may have. At the end of this meeting, we will let you know what will happen next. The therapist will communicate the outcome of the assessment to the person who referred you and your GP.

No. Services within iCope are free of charge for people registered with a Kingston GP.

You can expect regular sessions with the same worker. During sessions you will work together to help you reach your goals. From sessions you will develop ideas for things you can try outside your sessions – putting things into practice between sessions will be an important part of therapy.

You will be expected to attend your sessions and to let your worker know in advance if, for any reason, you are unable to attend. If you have to miss the occasional appointment (e.g. if you are unwell, have childcare problems), then your worker may be able to rearrange them. However, if many appointments are missed, or you do not let us know in advance, then treatment may have to stop and you will have to be re-referred if further treatment is required.

Appointments are usually in working hours (8am-5pm) but we are able to offer a limited number of appointments outside these hours. If it would be helpful, you can be provided with a letter for your employer without revealing the details of the problem. We try to arrange the time of the sessions to suit personal circumstances as far as possible. Please let us know in advance if there are factors which make it difficult for you to attend your scheduled appointment and we may be able to do something to help.

We have a legal duty to keep your information confidential. We share information with your GP and other healthcare providers to give you the best possible care. We do not give other organisations (e.g. housing) information about you without your consent. However, if there are circumstances where you or someone else might be at risk of significant harm, there may be a legal reason to share information about you. In these situations we must, by law, share information with other organisations.

Information about your treatment is kept on a secure computer system. The information we keep is used as part of your treatment and also to see how we can improve our services. Any information included in reports about improving the service is anonymised so no details that could identify you are included. If you would like to see the information we have about you, please discuss this with the therapist you are working with.

In addition, all services like ours send reports each month to the NHS information Centre. These reports contain some information about the people we are seeing. This is so we can compare how we are doing to other services and help the NHS in planning services across the country. No information that could reveal your identity is used in these national reports. However, if you do not want your information included, please tell your therapist and they will make sure your information is not included. This will not affect your treatment in any way.

This service is available to people who do not have English as their main language. We can arrange for an interpreter.

Please let us know in advance if you have any mobility problems which could cause any difficulties in keeping your appointment. We will try to make arrangements to overcome them.