Crisis care

Find out what crisis care is like in your area.

Tell your local newspaper and get your MP to demand better crisis care.

A mental health crisis is frightening and can be life-threatening. Yet the quality of help you’ll get will depend on where you live. We found:

• You might not be able to get help immediately. Only one-third of people who used NHS crisis care services were assessed within four hours.
• If you do manage to get help, there may not be enough staff to care for you or keep you safe. 4 in 10 mental health trusts have staffing levels well below established benchmarks.
• And you may not be offered any choice in the treatment you get. Only 23 per cent of people in crisis were given a choice of treatment.

Under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, we asked mental health trusts in England and health boards in Wales to tell us about the services they provide for people when they’ve hit rock bottom and are in crisis.

If you're a commissioner

Read our FOI data: how effective are the current crisis care services in your area? Use our briefing to commission crisis care services that work. And which can save lives.

Download our briefing Mental health crisis care: commissioning excellence