Health and Background Information

 A Patient who had previously been cared for by the community team was reviewed in the morning handover after the team received an alert/ referral from a hospital and the GP highlighting possible deterioration of mental state, as well as claims the patient has made against her partner potentially resulting in a safeguarding.  The referral had detailed claims that the individual made specifically against her partner and that he was physically and psychologically abusing her.  The patient had been known to the services after suffering a previous drug induced psychotic episode but was not currently in care of the community team and did not have a Care Coordinator.   

This was therefore handed over to the duty team by management who has a matter of process dealt with urgent referrals for unallocated patients.  The duty team were instructed by the manager to contact the relevant safeguarding team to seek clarification of the steps that were needed to be taken.  Duty contacted the safeguarding team who advised that further information was needed from the patient to assess whether this was related to mental health deterioration or if the claims needed to be followed up further.  The assessment was undertaken by 2 members of duty (one locum staff and a student nurse[me]); The patient had reported that the previous claims she made were false and a symptom of her paranoia and increased drug use and this was fed-back to the MDT .   The manager was not involved throughout the initial process, however, once the assessment was done she took over the communication with safeguarding from the duty team members.