For a condition such as depression, the service user's journey of care may occur predominantly in primary care, involving secondary mental health services to a much smaller extent. As such, the standards for depression are structured to reflect a journey of care based on both the service user's severity of symptoms and their complexity of need.

• Additional guidance on depression available here.

Service users with no complex needs:
Standards 33-36 outline a discrete journey of care for service users with a diagnosis of depression whose complexity of need does not require specialist assessment and treatment (ie for this group of patients, the generic care standards do not apply).

Service users with complex needs:
Standard 37 addresses the needs of service users with a diagnosis of depression whose complexity of need require a comprehensive assessment. In such instances, the journey of care should follow both the generic care standards and standard 37.