Suicidal Thoughts How To Support Someone

Support services
What services can help someone who is having suicidal thoughts?
People who have suicidal thoughts can experience them differently. Some might actively be planning to end their lives. Others might have the thoughts without planning to act on them.

There are different options for professional support, depending on the situation of the person experiencing suicidal thoughts. There is information on these options below.

If you think their life is in danger, you can act immediately. A mental health emergency should be taken as seriously as a physical one. You’ll not be wasting anyone’s time.

Emergency services and accident and emergency (A&E)
If someone is in immediate danger of taking their own life you can:

* call emergency services on 999 to ask for an ambulance, or
* take them to A&E at their local hospital.

Paramedic and hospital staff will decide on the best support for them. This might be things like support in the community from an NHS crisis team or admission to hospital.

Contact the local NHS urgent mental health helpline
The NHS urgent mental health helplines are for people of all ages.

You can call for:

* 24-hour advice and support for you or someone you care for,
* help to speak to a mental health professional, and
* an assessment to help decide on the best course of care.

You can find details of your local NHS urgent mental health helpline at: /service-search/mental-health/find-an-urgent-mental-health-helpline. Or you can call NHS 111 to ask them for details.

NHS crisis team or home treatment team
NHS crisis teams give short term support for people having a mental health crisis. They’re sometimes called the home treatment team. They try and prevent people from needing to go to hospital and should be available to contact 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

You usually need a medical professional to refer someone to the NHS crisis team. Such as the person’s GP or someone from the NHS urgent mental health helpline.

If they’ve been supported by the crisis team before, they might be able to contact them directly for support.

Community mental health team (CMHT)
If a person is with their local NHS CMHT, they might be able to help from them. They can contact their care coordinator, normal point of contact or whoever is on duty that day.

GP
The person’s GP might be able to offer an emergency appointment and support. Or the surgery might have trained mental health workers who can help.

If the person you care for is refusing to seek help, you may want to let the their GP know your concerns. Professionals might need to share the information you give with your relative. If you don’t want this, you can explain to the professionals how it might affect your relationship.

For more information see our webpages on the following:

NHS 111
You can call the NHS on 111 or visit their website . They can advise you if you have an health problem and you’re not sure what to do. They’ re open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Crisis or recovery house
Crisis or recovery houses provide short-term accommodation where staff support people who are having a mental health crisis.

These services aren’t provided in every area but ask your local NHS urgent mental health line about them. Or you can search online, typing in ‘crisis house [location]’. You usually need to be referred by a NHS mental health or social services professional.

Some areas might have drop-in sanctuaries, safe havens or crisis cafes as a supportive place for someone to go during a crisis. You can search online to see if there are any in your local area.

Emotional support services
Emotional support services help by listening to someone’s concerns and giving them space and time to talk through how they feel. Emotional support services aren’t the same as counselling services, but staff are trained skilled listeners.

You can find details of emotional support services in the Useful contacts section at the bottom of this page.

Use Shout text service
Shout is a free, confidential, 24/7 text messaging support service for anyone who finding it hard to cope. They can text Shout to to connect to a trained person to help them. See for more information.

NHS talking therapy services
NHS talking therapy services are sometimes known as ‘IAPT’ services. IAPT stands for Improving Access to Psychological Treatments. If the person you care for doesn’t need urgent support, they might be a service that can help them.

They are free to use and provide talking therapies, group support and online tools. You can self-refer to your local service. If the service think it’s necessary, they might recommend that you be referred to a specialist NHS mental health team.

You can find your local NHS talking therapy service by calling NHS111 or searching on the following NHS website: /mental-health/talking-therapies-medicine-treatments/talking-therapies-and-counselling/nhs-talking-therapies

See our webpage on Talking therapies for more information.

What happens next after services are involved?
There can be different next steps depending on the situation of the person experiencing suicidal thoughts. Some outcomes might be.

* Being supported in the community by the local NHS crisis team or community mental health team. Or another specialist NHS mental health service.
* Being supported in the community by their GP and other primary care services. Such as their local NHS talking therapy service.
* Going to hospital as a voluntary patient. This means that they agree to be in hospital and can leave at any time, even if professionals advise against that.
* Going to hospital under the Mental Health Act. This means that they are being detained in hospital against their will. This is sometimes known as being ‘sectioned.’ This will only happen if they are a serious risk to themselves or other people because of their mental health. And they need assessment or treatment in hospital.

You might think the person you care for is a serious risk to themselves or other people because of their mental health. You can ask services to do a Mental Health Act assessment.

For more information see our webpages on the following: