Every day staff in A&E are bombarded with mental health and suicidle patients. The strain on the NHS and the desensitised staff is growing more and more apparent. 

Every day a suicidle person is made to feel worse through hours of sitting in A&E sometimes waiting entire weekends to see the mental health services (RAID team). They are often judged by staff and other patients, made to feel as though they are wasting everyone’s time. 

Mental health patients are told to go to A&E when they are feeling suicidle. It is their only option when mental health services are closed or on holiday. 

Many patients end up going home after 4+ hours of waiting and are either bought back by force with police/security who then have to watch them (wasting police resources) until the RAID team decide what to do, or they manage to go somewhere and are left untreated and their mental health gets worse. 

Beds for psychiatric hospitals are scarce and people in Birmingham are being placed as far as Scotland, away from family and friends, sometimes their only support system. 

We call for - 

An NHS or government run service with proper and adequate funding similar to A&E but for suicidle and mental health ONLY. This service must be;

- 24 hours. 

- Attached to every A&E or hospital, similar to birthing centres, so that if serious medical attention is needed then it is there. If not, they can remain in the center. Also so no one is ‘out of area’ or can’t find one near them. 

- Staffed well with people who genuinely want to work in this field. 

- Be a safe haven for these people to go in their state of distress. 

- Be a calm and relaxing area. 

- Patient and staff working together. 

What’s the point of this?

This will take the strain off A&E and create a better culture in dealing with mental health. Allowing people who suffer with mental health to be seen as a burden to A&E cannot continue! 

There are so many students, or people interested in this area that finding staff or volunteers who would love the experience of working here would not be hard! 

This could save many lives and help to stop devastating families all over the UK. If this support is available for someone having suicidle thoughts then there would be a greater chance of helping them to overcome these thoughts in an efficient, caring and healing way. 

We all know someone devastated by suicide or mental health. This is a real and scary issue, we can’t just sit by and allow this to continue. It is our mother, brother, father, daughter, son, sister, niece, nephew, cousins, our friends.  It is happening all around us and just asking ‘how are you’ once in a while won’t change the mental health failures they are experiencing!

Staff at A&E are in agreement, I have spoken to them many times. Something needs to change and we have the power to change it. 

Please sign this petition today and together we can make a progress in the system. 

Thank you.