Making a referral
If you’re a professional working with a young person who lives in Cumbria you can refer to PAC free of charge. After we receive your referral which you can find at the bottom of this page we will contact you to confirm that the young person is on the waiting list. You will hear from us next when there is a therapist free to work with them.
The young person will then be invited to attend an initial session where they will meet the therapist they will be working with and then they can decide if attending further sessions would be useful. This first session will last up to an hour and you are welcome to accompany the young person if that is their preference. We do have a small waiting area.
Attendance at PAC is voluntary and therapy only works if the young person wants our help so we would advise that you discuss the referral with them first. Appointments are made at a time that suits the needs of the young person, some after school appointments are available.
Confidentiality
All young people are entitled to confidentiality within the confines of their session at PAC. Information will not be shared unless the young person has agreed to it. This is an essential part of therapy and means the young person can feel safe to share whatever they might need to without worrying what others will think or say.
All therapists adhere to a code of ethics for their profession which includes keeping a client’s session private.
The only exception to this is where a therapist may have concerns over the safety of a young person or concerns about someone else’s safety due to something that has been shared. At the beginning of therapy the therapist will explain that in an instance where they deem the young person, or someone else, to be at significant risk of harm, they would need to share this information with the appropriate person. This could be a parent or carer, school or appropriate outside agency. The young person will be informed of this and included in the discussion as much as possible.
All staff are strictly bound by PAC Safeguarding and Child Protection procedures.
Sessions
Session times at PAC last one or two hours depending on the type of therapy and take place weekly. The length of time a young person will access therapy varies depending on each individual’s needs. It is usual for young people to attend for several months and young people with complex issues may need support for more than a year. One of the benefits of attending PAC is that we are not bound by time constraints and we will not end therapy until a young person no longer needs the support.