What to do in an emergency

Contact your General Practitioner (GP) if you are not known to mental health services

If you, a friend or relative are experiencing mental health problems and need emergency treatment, you should contact your General Practitioner (GP) in the first instance.

Your GP is your family doctor, the doctor you would normally go to see if you are ill or concerned about your health. He or she can usually deal with a mental health problem more quickly and fully than an Accident and Emergency (A & E) department.

To search for a GP in your area or to find the contact details of your practice please see the doctors section on nhs.uk

If you are being seen by our services

If you are currently in contact with mental health services in Oxfordshire, please refer to your Care Plan for information about what you should do if you are feeling more unwell or unsafe. Your Care Plan will contain helpful instructions about how to help yourself in a crisis and who to contact for further assistance.

Your local Adult Mental Health Team is available to be contacted 7 days a week from 7am until 9pm:

Overnight, from 9pm until 7am, the Night Team based at the Warneford Hospital can be contacted on 01865 901000 in the event of a mental health crisis that cannot wait for contact with your usual care team.

If you have been discharged from mental health services in the past 12 months and have concerns that your mental health is getting worse, you can contact the team you were discharged from for advice and self-referral. If you need help and advice overnight you can contact the Night Team, as above.

If you've never been under the care of one of our teams, or have not been for the past year, please make use of the information on these web-pages regarding self-help and local support services or contact your GP or call 111.

What is a crisis?

If you feel unsafe, distressed or worried about your mental health you may experience some of the following examples:

Mood changes (different to how you are usually)
Withdrawing from people (close family, friends or work colleagues)
Not taking care of yourself like you would usually
Increased thoughts about life not being worth living
Excessive worry
Feeling out of control
Feeling unable to cope
Changes in the way you think
Unusual ideas
Hearing voices or seeing things that others cannot
Thinking about harming yourself or someone else

Mental ill health is common, with 1 in 4 people in the UK experiencing a problem each year. Most conditions are managed well through medication and/or psychological services.

Safe Haven

Do you have a patient/service user in mental health crisis?

Would they benefit from a friendly, non-clinical space offering guidance, signposting, safety planning and listening support over the weekend?

The Oxford Safe Haven will be open on Friday, Saturday & Sunday 6pm – 12:30 am.

Please see this resource for more information (download) or get a copy of our information poster:

Have you heard about CALM?

The Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) is an award-winning charity dedicated to preventing male suicide, the single biggest killer of men under the age of 45 in the UK. In 2015, 75% of all UK suicides were male.

helpline is for men in the UK who are down or have hit a wall for any reason, who need to talk or find information and support. They're open 5pm–midnight, 365 days a year. For more info about the helpline service and call costs visit their helpline page. If you are in need of text based support, please use their webchat facility.

Visit their website: www.thecalmzone.net

Help is available:

NATIONWIDE

0800 58 58 58

LONDON

0808 802 58 58

Further Information

Oxford Health and its partners are committing to supporting local whole system efforts to reducing pressures on the A&E departments at the John Radcliffe, Horton and Stoke Mandeville hospitals. If you are concerned about your or someone else’s mental health please consider using an alternative to attending A&E where possible. People who have harmed themselves and require emergency medical treatment for this should continue to use Minor Injuries Units, A&E and the ambulance service.

Oxford Health has mental health clinicians working with Police, Ambulance, 111 and A&E in order to ensure that people experiencing mental health problems who are having contact with the emergency services can access mental health support from the right service at the right time.

Together with our partners, Oxford Health are currently developing additional services to meet the needs of people experiencing a crisis with their mental health. These developments are happening in relation to our local implementation of the 'Five Year Forward View'.

Organisations in the Oxfordshire Mental Health Partnership (OMHP) which provides services for people with severe and/or enduring mental health issues include:

Restore - Tel: 01865 455835; Website: restore.org.uk
Oxfordshire Mind – Tel: 01865 247788; Website: oxfordshiremind.org.uk
Response – Tel: 01865 397940; Website: response.org.uk
Connection Support – Tel: 01865 711267; Website: connectionsupport.org.uk
Elmore Community Services – Tel: 01865 200130; Website: elmorecommunityservices.org.uk
Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust – Tel: 01865 902600 (Warneford Reception); Website: www.oxfordhealth.nhs.uk

The TalkingSpace Plus Partnership works actively with people struggling with depression and anxiety and can be contacted on 01865 901222 or email: talkingspaceplus@nhs.net

Organisations in The TalkingSpace Plus Partnership include:

Oxfordshire Mind – Tel: 01865 247788; Website: oxfordshiremind.org.uk
Principal Medical (PML) – Tel: 01865 817667; Website: principal-medical.co.uk
Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust – Tel: 01865 901222; Website: oxfordhealth.nhs.uk