Make a referral
If you have read the ‘What we do’ section and would like to refer yourself or make a
professional agency referral for counselling, please select from the relevant Referral buttons below.
We are available on 01234 843345 between 8.30am and 4.30pm during the week, except on bank holidays.
Outside of these hours, or if our line is busy, please leave us your name and number and a short message and we will get back to you when we are back in the office. Alternatively, email us on enquiries@rvtrust.co.uk.
Please note that we do not provide an urgent care or crisis service. If you are concerned about your current wellbeing, please contact your GP urgently or you can also get help via 111. If you are worried about an immediate risk, please visit your nearest A&E department or call the emergency services on 999. The Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or via www.samaritans.org
As we currently work in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire, if you live outside of these areas and the collision didn’t happen in one of these areas, we will try to refer you to an agency in your area who may be able to help.
Counselling Referral Process
Referral
Referrals may be made to us by the police, one of our partner agencies, other interested parties such as schools or GP’s or the individual themselves. We work with anyone affected by fatal road collisions including family, friends, witnesses and those involved. We also work with some people affected by collisions that result in serious injury.
Contact and information
If you’re referred by the police or another agency, we make sure that we contact you within 48 hours – usually by letter to let you know that we are here, as well as a leaflet giving you information about our service. If we have your contact number, we will call you within a week if we haven’t spoken with you already. We understand that this can be a very difficult time and you can also call us at any point.
Introductory Call & Assessment
We will call you and you can tell us a little about how you’re feeling since the collision. We will ask you some practical questions and during this time will be assessing how we might best be able to help. It may be that another service is more relevant, and if that’s the case we will let you know and try to help you access this if you would like this. You may want a little time to think about whether you want to have counselling at this stage, in which case, we will usually offer to call you in a few weeks. We understand that this may be a confusing time and it’s not always possible to know what you might need.
If you decide to have counselling, we will need informed consent to work with you so before we can make arrangements, we will ask you to read and sign our counselling agreement. Counselling will be online, on the phone or in person at one of our offices and this will all be discussed in your assessment call/s.
Weekly Counselling Sessions
Your sessions will be weekly and your counsellor will talk with you in the early sessions about how you might work together based on what you are hoping to gain from counselling. The counselling is free and your sessions are confidential with some specific exceptions which will be discussed with you.
Sessions will be for as long as both you and the counsellor feel that it is useful in relation to your feelings associated with the collision.
All of our counsellors are either qualified & experienced, or senior trainee counsellors. They have all completed specialist training in this area.
Support at Court
Someone from The Road Victims Trust who is experienced in providing court support will be able to provide support at inquest or criminal court should you feel this would be of help to you.