During normal working hours, many possible options may exist. Unfortunately, outside Monday-Friday, 9am - 5pm, some services are not available.
The lists that follow give some guidance.
During normal working hours, emergency help may be available from:
- Community Mental Health Teams (CMHT's)
- Social Services - Duty Teams and Social Workers (ASW's)
- GPs / Family doctors
- Early Interventions, Community Support and Crisis Response Teams
- Mental Health Day Centres and Drop-Ins
- Accident & Emergency (A & E), at the local hospital
- Carers Support Services - see Services List
- Helplines - see Helplines and Services List
- Befriending Services
- Voluntary sector and Group contacts - see see Services List
- Police
- Ambulance
Outside Monday-Friday, 9am - 5pm, some of these services are not available. Some operate emergency out-of-hours services (usually GPs, Social Services emergency duty teams, some CMHT's, A & E, help-lines, Crisis Response Teams, police and ambulance) - see Out-of-hours services
The potential impact on carers is that, if relevant services are unavailable, they are the main source of emergency help and care for the cared-for person - but without the resources and training. This can be highly stressful, even disastrous if the cared-for person is in serious crisis. Life-or-death situations can arise. Carers should prepare for such occasions by identifying and noting which local services offer out-of-hours emergency help.
It is broad SCB policy to include on this site as many national, regional and local contact and information points relevant to carers, service users and those supporting carers in mental health, as is practical. The site will also point to key agencies covering other fields.
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