So, for my first post and the reason I finally decided to write this is in regards to mental health. I heard from someone the other day about a person that had ended their life by suicide after trying to contact the local crisis team for several days before hand, to be told that they were unable to make home visits.

Now this isn’t about blaming the crisis team, I just felt really upset that this person was trying to seek help and wasn’t able to access it. Front line workers have been able to visit people in their homes due to emergency situations, ambulance staff, the police, carers, social workers but why does a mental health crisis still come further down the list and not be seen as an emergency?

There is a fair bit of media coverage about the impact of the lockdown on the nations mental health and charities, as usual are trying to plug the gap in support that ‘should’ be delivered by statutory services, yet this person’s life wasn’t deemed important enough for a visit to deliver the care and support they so desperately needed?

I feel that it is really important to highlight the deaths of all the people that have not been able to seek the support they need, people already isolated and suffering with mental health difficulties, people with addiction issues that used meetings and local support networks to maintain their recovery. Victims of domestic abuse that are stuck in houses and relationships that causing them harm, emotional, physical, psychological, you name it, plus the children that will be witnessing this abuse.

I also know from working in the field of health and social care for many years that the support people need is not easily accessible at the best of times, due to on-going cuts to services, organisations having to re-tender for contracts all the time. It means services change their names, staff and reputation which makes reaching out and seeking help all the more difficult.

The crisis that I believe is going to follow the actual disease of Covid-19 is there will be further cuts to services already unable to cope, plus more and more people needing help and support and not being able to get it.

I don’t want to have a rant without also talking about what amazing services there are still and incredible hardworking and dedicated staff that keep trying to do their best to support people, which I have no doubt describes every person within that crisis team that were unable to visit the person who so desperately needed help.

If you feel that you are struggling with your mental health, or you may not even be able to say that ‘my mental health is suffering’ but you feel low, tearful, unable to cope, unable to ‘snap out of it’, unable to properly say how you feel, unable to see any hope for the future, or even that it would be easier if you were not here then please ring someone. Ring someone you trust and who listens, or ring someone that will just listen that you can trust such as Samaritans.

There has been a huge increase in mental health difficulties since lock down, we don’t know the full extent of this yet and may never will. Sometimes it can help just knowing that you are not alone, that you are not the only one suffering in this way, that there are other people that have an understanding of what it’s like – although everyone’s story and situation is different.

So, there is no better time to seek help, the more your voice is heard the more chance there is of change.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Samaritans is there 24 hours a day call 116123

https://www.samaritans.org/