Crisis management

A mental health crisis often means that you no longer feel able to cope or be in control of your situation. It often involves a sudden or continued worsening of your symptoms. You may feel great emotional distress or anxiety, feel you can't cope with day-to-day life, think about suicide or self-harm, or experience hallucinations including hearing voices.

Below are some suggestions for what you can do if you are experiencing a mental health crisis. The option you choose will depend on how severe you feel your symptoms are and if you can wait a short amount of time to get help or if you need help immediately. Please have a read of the options below and decide which one is best for you.

Support available:

Emergency 999 - call an ambulance if you are at risk and need immediate help with your mental health crisis.

NHS 111 Service - call if you need non-emergency help fast but it is not a life-threatening emergency.

NHS Urgent Mental Health Helplines (England only) - Many local areas in England have Urgent Mental Health Helplines that you can contact 24/7 when in crisis. To find out if your area has an Urgent Mental Health Helpline and to get the contact details click here.

If you are in crisis and feel you need urgent mental health support but also have serious physical injuries, then we would advise you to attend A&E to address your physical injuries. You will be offered assessment and referred for support for any mental health crisis once you are seen as medically fit to do so.

If you need someone to talk to about difficult feelings, The Samaritans are available 24/7. Call 116 123 for free any time.

If you struggle with thoughts about self-harm and suicide, the Staying Alive app is a pocket suicide prevention resource for the UK, packed full of useful information and tools to help you stay safe in crisis. You can use it if you are having thoughts of suicide or if you are concerned about someone else who may be considering suicide. It contains a safety plan for you to complete to help you stay safe and share with others so that they know how best how to help you in times of crisis.

The app links you directly to local and national crisis resources, so you won't need to carry around slips of paper with contact details on, it's all stored there within the app. If the resource isn't listed, simply add in your own. The App has been developed by Grassroots Suicide Prevention which is a charity that supports communities to prevent suicide.