Rise In Emergency Calls To Grimsby Mental Health Service

A Grimsby crisis centre has told Viking they're now helping record numbers of people overcome issues such as depression, anxiety and thoughts of suicide.

The Sanctuary: Grimsby launched an overnight support service for people experiencing a range of mental health problems earlier this year.

They've now provided emergency through the night support to over 800 people - with numbers continuing to rise by around 30% each month.

It was also set up to help relieve pressure on other local emergency services including A&E and it's now hoped the project can be extended further.

Rob Baty is from the service and told us:

"We were inundated from day one and numbers have continued to grow by around 30% each month.

"We have had over 800 calls and over 80 people actually accessing the service overnight and that continues to go up right the way till July and it's looking like August is set to be our busiest month yet.

"That's over 163 hours of call time and over 40 hours of face to face contact with people that are expressing anxiety, depression and low mood for several reasons that services like A&E and the local mental health unit would not normally see because they're not at that crisis at that time but left alone they would probably have to put strain on emergency services.

"There are a lot of people out there who have hidden anxiety and the services that would normally cope with them would be A&E, among others and while they have their place, some people feel that low moods are not yet in crisis. So this is a place that they can come to when they'v got things that are on their minds and it brings down referral times for other organisations and means we can all work together to ensure people have got the correct service at the right time.

"The project has been extended for another two months while we work with the local Clinical Commissioning Group to try and secure funding for this project. Just by the numbers alone and the research we have done behind that it shows that it is needed in this area."

Rob says it's vital vulnerable people have access to support services at all times of the day:

"A lot of these people sit on their own and their minds wander. They leave themselves very vulnerable until the morning, they then might find themselves drinking and some people will get worse at the times when there's no-one around and be fine during the day."

Karen, who lives near Open Door, has visited the Sanctuary a number of times, having heard about the service when she was having treatment at a respite centre for a mental health-related breakdown, and having suicidal thoughts.

“I felt like everything in my life had gone wrong at the same time, it had gone beyond really bad. I was having a lot of trouble coping with the tablets I had been put on as well – they were giving me massive side effects. At one point I was having withdrawals and didn’t know who or where I was.

“When I called the Sanctuary I immediately felt the staff were warm and friendly, and had time to speak to me. I also visited quite a few times and found it inviting, they had the time to chat to me as long as I needed until I had calmed down. There were two staff to speak to so if one had to go and answer the phone I wasn’t left on my own.

“If I hadn’t heard of the Sanctuary I think I would have ended up relying on going to the hospital mental health services.”