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This checklist supports routine coordination by family offices and trusted advisers. It is not a clinical triage instrument, a safeguarding policy or legal advice. Follow your own professional requirements and seek appropriate expertise where responsibilities are unclear.
Immediate danger or a medical emergency is not a routine referral. Contact the relevant emergency services and follow organizational procedures. Do not delay urgent care to obtain a preferred booking, protect a diary or convene family decision-makers.
A. Clarify the request
Record who is asking for help and who would receive care. Distinguish the individual’s own request from a relative’s concern or a business requirement. State the practical task you are being asked to perform: find information, identify potential providers, arrange logistics or coordinate an authorized handover.
Avoid writing an assumed diagnosis into the request. Describe relevant observations proportionately and allow qualified professionals to assess clinical questions. Do not treat a person’s disagreement with the family’s plans as evidence that they need treatment.
Check: Is the remit clear? Are there divided loyalties or professional obligations that need independent advice?
B. Confirm the person’s voice and permission
For routine coordination, ask what the person wants you to do and how they prefer to be contacted. They may want a shortlist without a booking, an appointment without family involvement, or logistical support without access to clinical information.
Use the provider’s appropriate consent processes. Clarify the purpose, recipients and scope of any information sharing rather than relying on a broad assumption of family authorization. Explain the limits of your own role before inviting sensitive disclosures.
Check: What is authorized? What is not? How and when will the arrangement be reviewed?
C. Prepare a proportionate provider enquiry
Ask the service what information it needs for an initial discussion. Avoid sending a complete financial or family dossier by default. Use an appropriate secure channel and limit information to what is necessary for the specific purpose.
Ask about relevant qualifications, clinical scope, assessment, emergencies, continuity and alternatives. Use the provider questions rather than treating prestige or accommodation as evidence of fit. NIMH identifies professional experience, approach and progress review as useful questions when choosing therapy. [1]
Check: Has the service explained what it can and cannot provide? Are commercial relationships disclosed?
D. Separate administration from clinical information
Identify who needs appointment dates, transport instructions, invoices or other practical details. Do not assume each participant needs to know the concern, diagnosis or content of sessions. Review shared calendars, inboxes and document permissions before circulating information.
Ask the provider how family or adviser involvement would work and how the individual can communicate independently. Confirm any billing descriptions that might reveal sensitive information to people who do not need it.
Check: Is every information recipient connected to a specific, authorized purpose?
E. Agree ongoing responsibilities
Determine what the office will do after the appointment or admission, and what remains with the clinical team. Clarify which contacts are monitored, which concerns require emergency services and how practical changes will be communicated.
Do not convert coordination into surveillance or make the office responsible for monitoring medication, private relationships or therapy participation without an appropriate professional arrangement. A clear limit is preferable to an expansive promise that cannot be fulfilled responsibly.
Check: Who owns each next step? Does the person receiving care understand the plan?
F. Review the process
After coordination, review whether the remit was respected, information was limited and any conflicts were addressed. Do not require a personal account of therapy as part of an administrative review. Update process weaknesses without turning the individual’s health into an organizational performance metric.
See family offices and mental health for the full guide. Record only what is necessary under your applicable professional and organizational requirements; this printable resource does not create a legal basis for collecting or retaining sensitive information.
Sources and scope
1. National Institute of Mental Health: Psychotherapies. Accessed 21 September 2026.