If a person's mental or emotional state gets worse quickly, this can be called a mental health emergency or mental health crisis. In this situation, it's important to get help quickly to stop the person harming themselves or others.
Mental health emergencies can include:
- threats of suicide or self-harm
- self-neglect, such as stopping eating or drinking
- aggressive behaviour
- being extremely distressed
- going missing
People already receiving treatment / help for mental ill health
If you are already receiving treatment and support for your mental health from a community mental health team, the first point of contact should be with the team and your care coordinator / named worker.
If you have previously had similar symptoms then you might find it useful to think about what helped you cope before.
Your care plan and / or a crisis and safety plan will identify what you (and others) can do to help along with details of who to contact in an emergency and outside of the teams operational hours.
It’s best to seek help from professionals that know you well as they can help support you better.
If this isn't in their care plan, call their GP first. For urgent advice or treatment when your GP surgery is closed contact the GP out-of-hours service 111. Alternatively contact your local mental health crisis team on 0800 0516 171.
If you think there is any immediate danger, call 999.
If the person you care for has written something on Facebook about struggling to cope or suicide and you can't contact them, you can report the suicidal content to Facebook. Facebook will put Samaritans in touch with the distressed friend to offer their expert support.
Useful information
Information can be found on the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS site by clicking here.
Need to talk
If you want to call someone about how you feel or how to deal with someone else’s behaviour, you could contact one of the following helplines for immediate assistance.
These helplines have specially trained volunteers who will listen to you, understand what you’re going through and help you through the immediate crisis.
Samaritans Telephone: 116 123 (free to call service open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for people who want to talk in confidence)Email: jo@samaritans.org |
Careline Telephone: 0845 122 8622 (Monday – Friday, 10am - 1pm and 7pm - 10pm) |
SANEline Telephone: 0300 304 7000 |
MIND Telephone: 0845 766 0163 (Monday – Friday, 9am - 5pm) |
NHS choices Website: https://www.nhs.uk/ The NHS Choices website has some useful information, advice and support. |
Everymindmatters
https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/
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If U Care Share
If U Care Share provides support for those affected by suicide. To find out more, call 0191 387 5661 or visit their website ifucareshare.co.uk