Mental health crisis services in England 'under pressure'

[Northerner]

Services for people who are suicidal or self-harming are facing unprecedented demand in England, a BBC Radio 5 live investigation has found.

Out of 39 mental health trusts that provided figures for their crisis teams, 27 had seen their workload increase - 70%.

And some had seen referrals rise by as much as 60% - but without a comparable rise in funding.

NHS England said an extra £400m would be spent on crisis resolution teams.

BBC Radio 5 live contacted all 54 mental health trusts who run crisis teams in England.

One of them, East London NHS Foundation Trust, revealed its crisis team had seen referrals increase from 7,057 to 11,368 last year, a 60% rise in demand.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-40732632

So much for parity

 

[Lucy Honeychurch]

Sadly this doesn't surprise me at all, three psychiatric wards have been closed within the last 5 years at my local hospital

 

[Bill Stewardson]

Sadly this doesn't surprise me at all, three psychiatric wards have been closed within the last 5 years at my local hospital

I use to do voluntary work in social therapy in a Warrington mental hospital, all those patients were shunted out into the community. This started a steady downward spiral, one which will not be halted by reducing budgets.