Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) Service

After the request is made

The AMHP service responds to requests for Mental Health Act (MHA) assessments from a range of professionals as well as from relatives and carers of people in mental health crisis.

Once a request is received by the AMHP service, the duty AMHP will screen the request to ensure that a MHA assessment is appropriate. The duty AMHP will contact the referrer to discuss the circumstances in more detail.

The duty AMHP will check whether other ways of helping the person with their mental health have been tried first, which might prevent the need to use the MHA (for example, involving a crisis team or arranging for a review of the person's social care needs).

If a MHA assessment is appropriate, an AMHP will be asked to arrange the assessment.

Requests are prioritised based on a risk assessment and the needs of the person or others.