Advice, Information and Useful Links
Support for your mental health
The Mental Health Service provides a range of primary, community and inpatient services for adults and older adults across the three local authorities of Bridgend County Borough, Rhondda Cynon Taf and Merthyr Tydfil areas.
Who is it for?
Adult Mental Health support is provided for those over the age of 18 years in the following specialities. Information for those under the age of 18 can be found on the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service pages.
Advice and Services
Get help without talking to your GP
Contact NHS 111 (press 2)
You can call NHS 111 and select option 2 if you or someone you know needs urgent mental health and wellbeing support and advice, but it's not life threatening.
Mental Health 111 (press 2) is free to call, from a mobile (even when the caller has no credit left) or from a landline.
You will be supported by a team of fully trained Mental Health Clinicians and Wellbeing Practitioners.
The service is available 24/7.
In life threatening situations, the advice is always to call 999 or attend the nearest Emergency Department.
Other support
There are also other mental health services that you can use without contacting your GP surgery first. For example, you may be able to access SilverCloud, a free online Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) self-help service designed to support your mental health and wellbeing.
Please click on this link for more information on services and self help options to help with your mental wellbeing.
Talk to your GP
You’ll need to contact your GP surgery to access some mental health services. You will be directed to a member of the surgery team who will be able to talk to you about your mental health and help introduce you to the right mental health service for your needs.
This may be a Mental Health Practitioner or a GP who will provide advice and self-help, social prescribing, or onward referral to more specialist support from mental health services (third sector, community or inpatient services).
Help Me Quit is the national NHS stop smoking brand for Wales, providing free, evidence-based support to help individuals quit smoking for good. Since its launch in 2017, Help Me Quit has empowered thousands of people to take control of their health and embrace a smoke-free future.
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Support from NHS experts
who understand the challenges of quitting and provide compassionate, evidence-based guidance.
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Free Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT)
Tailored to your needs, including patches, gum, or lozenges to support your quit journey.
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Access to prescription-only medicines
that can further improve your chances of successfully quitting.
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Personalised, localised support
Helping you choose the best stop smoking service for your circumstances and preferences.
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Proven results
Making Help Me Quit the best choice for anyone in Wales ready to stop smoking for good.
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Services available in Welsh, English, and other language preferences
Ensuring accessible support for everyone in Wales.
Wellbeing Coordinators link adults to sources of support in the community to help with any social, emotional and practical needs.
Our Wellbeing Coordinator Team work across Rhondda Cynon Taf and support adults with:
- Wellbeing support
- Emotional health
- Financial/debt
- Loneliness and isolation
- Housing
- Food banks
- Community information
- Bereavement
- Anything that matters to you
They will work with you to identify what matters most to you and link you to activities, groups and services in your community.
Email address
wellbeing@interlinkrct.org.uk
Telephone
07526 571340
Integrated Sexual and Reproductive Health Care in CTM
The Cwm Taf Morgannwg Integrated Sexual Health Clinics offer the following services - Free and Confidential:
- Sexual health advice, testing for sexually transmitted infections (STI’s) and treatment
- All methods of Contraception including Oral contraception (Pills) Contraceptive injections, Contraceptive implants, Intrauterine contraceptive devices (coil)
- Emergency oral contraception (Pill) and Emergency coils.
- Pregnancy testing
- Cervical Screening (Cytology / Smear)
- HIV testing
- Access to PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis)
- Access to PEP (post-exposure prophylaxis)
- Vaccinations - hepatitis B, hepatitis A, HPV and Monkeypox (if a certain criteria is met)
- Abortion advice and referral
- Support for victims of sexual assault
- Psychosexual counselling
- Dedicated Young People’s clinic
Choose Pharmacy is a system that supports community pharmacies to provide services for patients and the public and aims to free up GP appointments for people with more complex needs.
The majority of pharmacies across Wales are able to offer the following services to their patients:
Common Ailments Service
The Common Ailments Service reduces the need for patients to attend the GP to seek treatment for minor ailments.
Treatment and/or advice may be offered for the following Common Ailments
- Indigestion
- Athlete's Foot
- Constipation
- Diarrhoea
- Piles
- Head Lice
- Teething
- Nappy Rash
- Colic
- Chicken Pox
- Threadworms
- Acne
- Dermatitis
- Intertrigo
- Ringworm
- Scabies
- Hay Fever
- Back Pain
- Ingrowing Toenails
- Cold Sores
- Sore Throat
- Mouth Ulcers
- Conjunctivitis
- Dry Eye
- Oral Thrush
- Vaginal Thrush
- Verruca/warts
Some pharmacies providing the Common Ailments Service may also offer a Sore Throat Test and Treat consultation. This service provides a clinical assessment for patients presenting with a sore throat, may include a simple throat swab test for those with symptoms which suggest they may have a bacterial infection and the supply of suitable treatment.
Discharge Medicines Review
This service allows electronic discharge information to be transferred from the Hospital to a patient’s nominated Community Pharmacy with their consent and for the Pharmacy to undertake a Discharge Medicines Review. The service ensures that the patient is prescribed the correct medication after leaving hospital.
The pharmacy team can provide advice and assistance in managing the medication prescribed.
Contraception Service
The Contraception Service allows accredited community pharmacists to supply emergency contraception (morning after pill) and bridging contraception (a supply of regular contraception until a further supply can be prescribed) to a patient where appropriate.
Emergency Medicines Supply
The Emergency Medicines Supply service, where appropriate, allows pharmacists to provide patients with an emergency supply of medicine where they are unable to obtain a timely supply from their GP or usual pharmacy. Examples of when the service may be used are:
- when a patient is on holiday
- when medication is urgently required outside of GP hours
The consultation gives pharmacists access to a summary of the Welsh GP record to ensure they can supply the correct medication.
Independent Prescribers Service
The Independent Prescribers Service allows pharmacists who are qualified as Independent Prescribers to record a consultation within Choose Pharmacy. A pharmacist independent prescriber, where appropriate, can prescribe for any condition within their clinical competence.
This service provides access to the patient’s Welsh GP Record to support the pharmacist’s clinical decision making.
When undertaking a consultation, the pharmacist will provide advice for self-management of the condition and may prescribe medication. The pharmacist may also refer the patient to the GP or other setting such as A&E, Out-of-Hours service if necessary.
A summary letter will normally be generated at the end of the consultation to be sent to the patient’s GP.
A patient history will be created within Choose Pharmacy which will move with the patient if they access the Independent Prescribers Services at a different pharmacy.
Seasonal Flu Vaccine Service
The Choose Pharmacy system includes a flu vaccination service, which allows an eligible patient to consult their pharmacy to receive a flu jab. All flu consultation records completed within Choose Pharmacy will be sent electronically to the patient’s GP practice.
Choose Pharmacy is enabled by software that has been developed by Digital Health and Care Wales.
Self-referral physio is a musculoskeletal physiotherapy service designed to assess and support people struggling with joint and/or soft tissue pain/injury that is impacting function.
You can refer yourself directly to Physiotherapy team using the form on this page without the need to see a GP
DASPA is a single point of access for advice, information and an easy route into services for those affected by substance use in the Cwm Taf and Bridgend areas.
The Drug and Alcohol Single Point of Access (DASPA) provides easier access for service users, family members, concerned others and professionals to obtain advice or make a referral to all substance use services across Cwm Taf and Bridgend, including Barod, Community Drug and Alcohol Teams (CDAT) and Dyfodol (Criminal Justice).
There are multiple ways to access this service, by telephone, by SMS or by using our online service.
Click here to access DASPA directly