I’ve just lost most of Monday trying to help a very distressed and exhausted J, whilst working out why the crisis help line she is told to call didn’t even have a working answer-phone message.
The Richmond Fellowship won a contract to provide out-of-hours mental health talking support for outpatients of the Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust. Recently the Care Quality Commission slammed the Trust for not providing such a service at night and at the weekends when the Community Mental Health Teams are closed. We have had a lot of confusion about the exact hours this line is “open” and whether or not this means you get through to a human being, and /or if you leave a message a person will call you back. Apparently last night when my (suicidal) partner (I am also her “carer” but we live in separate houses) called the line, she was met with an automated message along the lines of “Ext number ## is not working, please leave message after the tone.” Ringing twice to check the number was right, she left a message (sometime after 4 am). No-one called her back. These lines are also essential in terms of taking pressure off the 111, 999 and A&E services, as well as possibly talking suicidal people into staying alive for one more night. This is the latest in a series of problems relating only to the helpline.
Emails have been sent. Complaints procedures triggered.
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