This page is for clinicians, general practitioners, hospital staff, HR practitioners, and caseworkers referring a patient or client to Safe Places. It is deliberately compressed; the rest of the site explains our services at patient-facing length.

Who can refer

Anyone. Professional referrals are welcome; so are self-referrals and family contacts, and no referral letter is required for a person to reach us directly. Nothing about your referral gatekeeps their access.

How to refer

Useful information, where you have it and can appropriately share it: presenting concerns, relevant history, current medications, substance-use pattern if applicable, and any urgency context. Partial information is workable; the receiving professional’s own assessment follows regardless.

What happens to your referral

Assessment first, in every case. Your referral information feeds the assessment; it does not substitute for it, and a referral therefore does not guarantee a particular service or level of care. The recommendation — out-patient care, residential admission, detoxification, psychiatric care, or another service — comes from our assessment, made with the client.

Scope, in brief

Core clinical services are for adults: mental health conditions across the DSM-5 categories (assessed; treated here or referred onward as appropriate), substance-use disorders including medically supervised in-facility detoxification, behavioural addictions, and co-occurring presentations. Minors can be assessed at our out-patient centre, always with a parent or guardian present; residential admission is from age 18. Beyond that, our involvement with minors runs through school-based support programmes; where a student needs clinical treatment, it proceeds only with parental or guardian consent and involvement, through the out-patient track where appropriate, or by onward referral to specialist child and adolescent services — discuss the specifics with the clinical team before referring a minor. Immediate safety or safeguarding concerns are managed under applicable law and professional duties. Residential capacity at Bujjuko; out-patient services at Kyambogo, Kampala.

Two boundaries worth knowing at referral time. We do not operate an emergency service, and neither centre receives emergencies: acute medical emergencies, severe withdrawal in progress, and immediate suicide risk belong in a hospital first, and we are glad to take the referral once the person is stable. Should a client in our care develop a medical emergency, the team arranges immediate transfer to a referral hospital. And medication-assisted protocols should be discussed with our psychiatric team directly rather than assumed.

Communication back to you

With the client’s consent, we can communicate with referring professionals about progress and discharge planning. Without it, confidentiality applies to the person referred as it does to every client — information reaches a referrer only with the client’s consent, where the law requires or permits it, or where safety makes it necessary; we will tell you if consent has not been given rather than leave you wondering.

For anything this page doesn’t cover: +256 770 700944.