Care Commission Report into People’s Experience of Care during a Mental Health Crisis

Thursday, 18th June 2015

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has just produced a report based on feedback from 1,800 people with experience of a mental health crisis and how the health care and social care services worked together to aid their recovery.

The report released in June 2015 found that quality of care experienced by a person in a mental health crisis varies considerably depending on where they live and which services they require help from.

Sadly many people found that the healthcare professionals that they were coming into contact with lacked compassion and warmth towards them.

Their findings included:

The majority of people (60%) who visited their GP in the first instance were satisfied with their experience.

One in twelve respondents stated that they came into contact with between six and twelve different services, which might indicate that services should work more closely together to reduce this number for people during this crisis for time.

Positive news was that the number of police cells used as a ‘place of safety’ has significantly fallen but it was found that individuals under 18 years have problems accessing suitable places of safety to meet their needs.

The Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals and the CQCs lead for mental health issues in his discussions about the report findings stated:

“It is not acceptable for people with mental health problems to be treated differently to those with physical health problems.

“These findings must act as a wake-up call to our public services. We found some excellent examples of services in areas joining-up and providing effective care, with staff committed to working to make sure people in a crisis received the help they needed.”