Adult Therapy Services

We are usually able to offer an Initial Consultation within a week of your enquiry, where we think carefully with you about what type of therapy approach is best suited to meet your needs from a wide range of options within our team. We aim to offer ongoing therapy sessions within 1-3 weeks following this, depending on your availability and preference for online or in-person appointments.

Please note, these waiting times often change depending on the availability of our therapists.

Children and Young People Therapy Services

The Retreat clinics, on average schedule first appointments within two weeks of receiving a referral.

*Please note there may be some exceptions of this for certain specialisms

Autism and ADHD

We are commissioned to receive and triage an estimated 60 referrals per month, however due to an increase in demand we have received on average 4-5 times the amount we had envisaged we would receive, unfortunately this has led to a substantial delay in triaging the referral prior to acceptance of around 15 months.

Our waiting times have increased due to an unprecedented demand for our service, which has further increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Individual waiting times are variable and unfortunately, we cannot give specific times for individuals. Please do not contact the service to enquire about waiting times as we cannot provide any more information than is provided within this section.

We understand that the lengthy waits for assessment can be upsetting and cause distress. If you are experiencing difficulties with your mood and wellbeing, we would recommend that you contact your GP. You may wish to speak to your GP about being referred to a different service under the NHS Right to Choose or decide to opt for a private assessment. If you do take up any of these options, please let us know so that we can remove you from our waiting list.

Once we have triaged your referral, we will let you know if you have been accepted or declined for an assessment/medication. If you do not hear from us this is because you are still in triage, please note that due to demand there is a delay between receiving your referral and triaging for acceptance/rejection onto our waiting list this wait is currently estimated at between 12-15 months but is subject to change dependant on demand.

Once accepted you will be placed on the waiting list from the date we originally received your referral.

Please keep us updated of any changes to your contact details.

Below are our current average wait times for clients seen in July 24 we will endeavour to update these wait times as soon as possible, please note that these wait times are subject to change, and we are unable to comment on individual clients wait times.

Autism (ASD)

• Our wait times for an Autism diagnostic assessment in July 2024 was : 3.5 Years from the date of your referral being received.

ADHD

• Our wait times for our ADHD service in December 2023 were :
  • For diagnostic assessment: 3.6 Years from the date of your referral being received.
  • For treatment / medication: 18-24 Months from the date of your referral being received.

Due to our commissioning requirements and capacity we envisage that waiting times are likely to grow, we apologise for any inconvenience or stress this may cause.

Please see below what we are commissioned to provide : 

We are commissioned to receive and triage an estimated 60 referrals per month, however due to an increase in demand we have received on average 4-5 times the amount we had envisaged we would receive, unfortunately this has led to a substantial delay in triaging the referral prior to acceptance of around 15 months.

The Autism and ADHD services at the Retreat clinics are currently resourced and commissioned to provide –

• 214 Autism diagnostic assessments per year
• up to 242 ADHD diagnostic assessments per year – we are also commissioned to provide medication reviews and support, dependant on demand there may be priority given to medication clients within the ADHD pathway due to urgent need, this may impact on the number of ADHD assessments we are able to provide.

Due to the increased demand on our services, we are continually exploring ways to make changes to our assessment pathways so that our clients receive efficient and robust assessments whilst ensuring that we see as many people as we can, however, please be aware that we are unable to beyond our commissioning capacity due to limitations within our current NHS contract.