Try waiting FIVE HOURS in a hospital ED with someone in a mental health crisis who, if not held by you, would run off and throw themselves under a car.
You watch as they get worse. They’re in there wanting long-sought help because it has got so bad for them, not getting anywhere, they intend to kill themselves. If not helped, they will die.
Imminent self-killing is minor. Apparently. It’s there on the wall, on a poster. You aren’t bleeding to death. So you’ll wait. Go see your GP – well they did, they were referred to the ED – or call First Response. That was done. They said they’ll only act when suicide is attempted. Great. What if the method is immediate – a knife to one’s own throat, for example? There’s not even any point calling an ambulance then, is there? They’ll have been cold three hours before one shows up. So who IS getting help from First Response, if not those needing them the most?
It gets to the point where the suffering person is gently persuaded by the person supporting them to come to the front desk and speak to reception. They’re a mess but together you manage to talk, explain, in front of people, what’s going on. It feels like a shaming. An exposure. You think you heard another patient tut. You imagine them thinking, “There’s nothing wrong with that person and they’re trying to jump the queue, I’m here with a broken thumb”. Yet, the person getting the resentment is trying to die and the person with them is negotiating for an act of mercy to save their life and get them the help they need. You certainly won’t die from a broken, painful thumb. But that isn’t minor.
The receptionist has a kind face. She does what she can. She makes a call. Five minutes later, an angel appears and ushers you into a room at last where the person in crisis gets listened to, prescribed a temporary calmer you pocket just in case to regulate the dose and frequency safely. They will get assessed in their home, not sectioned. No room. No beds. No staff. Okay. Five days a week they’ll be visited to determine a full psychiatric assessment and diagnosis, get long-term medication and talking therapy. You’ve been trying to get the person these things for 10 months through referral. You got coffee morning invites and long walks suggested. Still, you are both relieved. The threat of self-harm lifts, just a little. You are told you have “saved my life” because you care and fight for them.
Just imagine what could be achieved if people were helped before they got into that state. When it comes to the bottom line, which is always money, think about how much money could be saved. Instead, we live in a supposedly civilised country where you have to be about to cut your own throat before anybody who could do something will pay any attention to you at all.
My friends, my loved ones, myself, you, your friends, and families all deserve better than this. Everyone, including those who are on benefits for any reason, has contributed something at some point to this country‘s government to procure health services at point of need and beyond. This is not the fault of the people who work in the NHS. This is the fault of politicians. We can all see and feel and experience the rot now.
What you do not see are mental health problems, unless a person is running down the street with an axe threatening to injure strangers. That is when they are as likely to get shot by police as they are to get any help. Yet a mental crisis is a terrible agony like a broken leg or collapsed lung.
What it isn’t is minor.
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