Clinical Assessment for Resistant Depression (CARE) Clinic
The Cardiff CARE Clinic is a new clinic for people living with difficult-to-treat depression. The clinic is a partnership between Cardiff University, and Cardiff and Vale Health Board.
Difficult-to-treat depression is depression that has not got better despite trying multiple previous treatments.
The clinic will provide a detailed face-to-face assessment with depression specialists.This will allow us to better understand your depression symptoms & recommend better optimised treatment(s).
A key aim of the clinic is to offer people the opportunity to access new pharmacological or psychological treatments by taking part in clinical trials.
Are there other similar specialist clinics?
Yes, the Cardiff CARE clinic is one of 15 new specialist mood disorder research clinics across the UK established as part of the Mental Health Mission. It is the only such clinic in Wales and is funded through a grant from the UK Office of Life Sciences.
The aim of this network is to improve access to specialist assessment for people living with difficult to treat depression & offer them the opportunity to take part in clinical trials of a wide range of new treatments.
How to access the clinic
- Currently, we only accept referrals from GPs, though we are hoping to expand this to self-referral in the future.
- GPs can refer you to this clinic if you have not adequately responded to two or more treatments for depression (as least one must be an anti-depressant medication)
- Due to the nature of this clinic, we are unable to provide on call advice or support.
- We are therefore unable to see people who feel unsafe or have recently experienced severe suicidal thoughts – where a referral to the crisis team or other secondary mental health services may be more appropriate.
For General Practitioners only
To make a referral please contact: CUPSmooddisordersclinic@cardiff.ac.uk