Private mental health assessments
Gain fast access to a mental health assessment at Priory, and get the mental health support you need.
- Quick access with no GP referral required
- Tailored recommendations for next steps
- Affordable assessments from £75
Are you worried about your mental health, but don’t know where to start? Would you like to talk to a qualified therapist without having to join a waiting list or get a GP referral? Would you like some advice on next steps? We can help.
At Priory, we offer two options to determine the best treatment route for you. These are:
- Virtual mental health assessment - providing quick access to an experienced mental health professional through a telephone or video call - cost £105
- Digital pathway - complete an online questionnaire, powered by Psyomics, with your results analysed by a Priory expert, and recommendations then made for treatment options - cost £75
Learn more about the options here
At Priory, we offer private mental health assessments for adults and young people (aged 7 to 17), providing quick access to an experienced mental health professional.
During this assessment, we’ll explore your specific concerns, helping you gain a clearer understanding of your mental health and guiding you towards the most suitable treatment options. This approach allows eligible clients to receive tailored support without delay.
Our assessments are delivered virtually at a time that suits you.
What happens during the session?
Unlike a more formal therapy or consultant assessment, the session won’t provide a diagnosis or treatment for your mental health concerns. Rather, it will allow us to develop an understanding of the challenges you’re currently facing, and provide a recommendation for next steps based on what’s right for you. This could include direct access to talking therapy and counselling, including psychological therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), that can be delivered face-to-face or online.
We’ll develop a personalised report following the initial assessment, detailing everything that we talked about, and listing our recommendations for further support.
In addition, if you think you may be showing some autistic traits, we can also offer you a screening test for autism during this initial assessment. The autism spectrum quotient (AQ-10) is a user-friendly questionnaire that indicates whether you/your child may be showing some of the signs of autism. If the AQ-10 shows that you/your child do have some autistic tendencies, then we can book you in for our full autism assessment, if this is of interest to you.
Who is the session for?
In some circumstances, the initial assessment might not be the most appropriate route for your needs. In order to identify whether it would be suitable for you, during your initial call with us we’ll ask you some simple questions about your current concerns and what support you’re looking for. Some of the information we’ll discuss with you includes:
- Whether you’re looking for inpatient or outpatient care
- Whether there are any immediate concerns for your wellbeing, or that of those around you
- If you have been advised to see a psychiatrist
- If you would like to discuss mental health medication
Based on your answers, we’ll be able to guide you to the most appropriate care. If we think that the initial assessment is a suitable service for you, we’ll send your referral to our experienced team to progress your care. If this isn’t the most appropriate pathway for you, Priory has a number of alternative treatment options and we'll help you to access the most suitable service for your needs.
How much do the assessments cost?
For adults
The cost of the initial assessment is £105. This includes:
- A 45-minute virtual session with one of our specialist and highly-trained therapists
- A detailed summary and recommendations report
- Free, unlimited access to the mental health app, My Possible Self
For young people
The cost of the initial assessment is £186. This includes:
- A 60-minute virtual session with one of our specialist and highly-trained psychologists or therapists
- A detailed summary and recommendations report
How do the young people's assessments work?
During the initial call with us we’ll ask some simple questions to determine the current concerns and what support is needed. Some of the information we’ll discuss includes:
- Whether the enquiry is for inpatient or outpatient care
- If there are any immediate concerns for the wellbeing of the young person, or that of those around them
- Whether or not there is a specific recommendation to see a psychiatrist
- If a review or new prescription for mental health medication is required
- Whether the young person is happy to have a virtual session, with input from their parent(s)/carer(s)
About the session
The young people’s therapist session will be split into two parts. During the first part, we’ll speak to the young person on their own, and during the second part, we’ll speak to the young person and their parent(s)/carer(s).
During the session, the therapist will be able to identify the presenting issue(s). We can use this, as well as any other information provided during the session, to make a recommendation for further treatment. This may be therapy, psychiatry or a specialist assessment such as an autism assessment.
After the session, we’ll provide a report outlining everything that was discussed, as well as our recommendations for onward treatment. This may include access to a private CAMHS assessment.
As an alternative to a virtual assessment, adults aged over 18 can take a digital pathway, by starting with an online questionnaire, powered by Psyomics.
The Psyomics Platform is a digital information gathering tool that helps you to share your experiences in a structured way with our healthcare team. Once you’ve completed the questionnaire, your responses will be shared with an accredited, senior Priory clinician to review, as part of their triage and assessment process. We’ll then recommend the most appropriate treatment route for you.
Access to the Psyomics Platform costs £75.
What is the Psyomics pathway?
The Psyomics Platform is an online questionnaire for patients that allows you to share information about your mental health status with healthcare professionals. It combines multiple choice clinical questionnaires with free text responses, to describe things in your own words, enabling you to share your experiences in a structured way with our healthcare team.
Starting your digital journey by completing the Psyomics questionnaire, via the Psyomics Platform, has numerous benefits, such as:
- Accessibility: patients can complete the Psyomics online questionnaire from the comfort of their own homes, making mental health support more accessible, especially for those with mobility issues or living in remote areas
- Convenience: this route allows for flexibility in timing, reducing the need for scheduling conflicts and providing an option for patients to provide key information and insights about their mental health needs and status, at their own pace. 25% of all Psyomics submissions occur outside regular office hours (7pm to 7am)
- Personalisation: the platform allows patients to share experiences in a way that feels comfortable and comprehensive, utilising both structured prompts and free-text questions to ensure your unique perspective is captured and understood
How does the Psyomics Platform work?
Firstly, our team will speak with you over the phone to assess whether you meet the eligibility criteria to complete the Psyomics Platform questionnaire. If you’re suitable, you’ll receive a link to complete the Psyomics Platform questionnaire via a secure text message.
You can complete the questionnaire on a mobile phone (recommended), or copy the link into a browser on a laptop, desktop or tablet. The questionnaire will guide you through:
- Questions about what you would like from treatment
- Clinical multiple choice questions about your experiences
- Questions about your current situation and support
- Optional sections for specific experiences
- Space to describe things in your own words
What information the Psyomics Platform questionnaire gathers
The questionnaire includes questions that ask about:
- Depression and mood changes
- Different types of anxiety
- Panic
- Sleep difficulties
- Trauma-related experiences (optional section)
- Obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours (optional section)
- Eating concerns (optional section)
- Alcohol use
- Drug use
- Impact of your symptoms on daily life
- Social support and circumstances
The Psyomics Platform is not suitable for crisis referrals, and does not screen for neurodevelopmental conditions or mental health symptoms in individuals under 18 years old.
How do I complete the Psyomics Platform questionnaire?
The Psyomics Platform is an online tool that lets you share your mental health information through a mix of multiple choice questions and free text responses.
The questionnaire includes 200 questions in total and typically takes up to 60 minutes to complete. You can save your progress and return later if needed.
Before sensitive topics, you'll see content warnings explaining what's coming next. Some sections are optional – you can choose whether to complete these, and you can discuss these areas with your healthcare professional when you feel ready.
The Psyomics Platform includes:
- Clear explanations of what will be asked
- Options to take breaks when you need to
- Automatic saving of your progress
- Information about getting urgent help if needed
- A mix of multiple-choice questions and space to write about your experiences
Please be open and honest with your answers to help the healthcare team understand your experiences. Once you have completed the questionnaire, your responses will be shared with the clinical team to review, as part of their triage and assessment process.
Call us
The first step in the process is for you to call our friendly team on 0330 056 6041. We will be able to outline how you can gain access to one of our services and check whether this is something you’d be interested in.
Eligibility questions
The next step will be for our team to run through some simple eligibility questions with you. This will only take a few minutes and can be done over the phone during this initial call.
What happens next?
If a private mental health assessment is suitable for you, we’ll refer you to one of our specialist sites, who will be in touch to arrange next steps. If the Psyomics pathway is appropriate, we’ll simply send you a link to get started – no referral needed.
If, for whatever reason, these options aren’t the most suitable for you, we will support you with accessing the service that best suits your needs.
Treatment
You’ll then be able to gain access to the treatment that’s been recommended for you, delivered by our Priory network. If you wish, we can support you with accessing either face-to-face or remote therapy, as recommended.
Crisis care
If you feel you are in crisis and need immediate support, our crisis information page has free resources that may be helpful.