What to do in an emergency?
Oxford Health and its partners are committing to supporting local whole system efforts to reducing pressures on the A&E departments at the John Radcliffe, Horton, and Stoke Mandeville hospitals. If you are concerned about your or someone else’s mental health please consider using an alternative to attending A&E where possible. People who have harmed themselves and require emergency medical treatment for this should continue to use Minor Injuries Units, A&E and the ambulance service.
Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Mental Health Helpline
People can call Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Mental Health Helpline when they need to find out when and where to get help and to access support from mental health professionals for a range of conditions and symptoms including anxiety, low mood, stress, worry, difficulty with relationships, crying often, feeling helpless, confusion, hallucinations, or hearing voices.
People can also call the Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Mental Health Helpline when they would usually ring 111, speak to their GP, council, or police for non-emergency mental health advice.
Adults: 01865 904 997
Children and young people: 01865 904 998
Contact your General Practitioner (GP) if you are not known to mental health services
If you, a friend or relative are experiencing mental ill-health and need emergency treatment, you should contact your General Practitioner (GP) in the first instance.
Your GP is your family doctor, the doctor you would normally go to see if you are ill or concerned about your health. They can usually deal with mental ill-health more quickly and fully than an Accident and Emergency (A & E) department.
To search for a GP in your area or to find the contact details of your practice please see the doctors section on nhs.uk
If you are being seen by the AMHT
If you are currently in contact with mental health services in Oxfordshire, please refer to your Care Plan for information about what you should do if you are feeling more unwell or unsafe. Your Care Plan will contain helpful instructions about how to help yourself in a crisis and who to contact for further assistance.
Your local Adult Mental Health Team is available to be contacted 7 days a week from 7am until 9pm:
Oxford City and North East Oxon: 01865 902200
North West Oxon: 01865 902563
South Oxon: 01865 904191
Overnight, from 9pm until 7am, the Night Team based at the Warneford Hospital can be contacted on 01865 901000 in the event of a mental health crisis that cannot wait for contact with your usual care team.
If you have been discharged from mental health services in the past 12 months and have concerns that your mental health is getting worse, you can contact the team you were discharged from for advice and self-referral. If you need help and advice overnight you can contact the Night Team, as above.
If you’ve never been under the care of one of our teams, or have not been for the past year, please make use of the information on these web-pages regarding self-help and local support services or contact your GP or call 111.
Add CRHTT info when expand
If you experience mental health crisis at the weekend, you can self-refer to the Oxford or Banbury Safe Haven
The Safe Havens are out of hours, non-clinical space offering crisis support, signposting, safety planning and listening support over the weekend.
The Oxford and Banbury Safe Haven are open on Friday, Saturday, Sunday & Monday 6pm – 10pm.
The referral line is open from 5pm on the day of the service. The last entry is at 9pm.
To contact the Oxford Safe Haven call 01865 903 037
To contact the Banbury Safe Haven call 01295 270004 and 07851 246546
Please see this resource for more information (download) or get a copy of our information poster:
What is a crisis?
If you feel unsafe, distressed or worried about your mental health you may experience some of the following examples:
- • Mood changes (different to how you are usually)
- • Withdrawing from people (close family, friends or work colleagues)
- • Not taking care of yourself like you would usually
- • Increased thoughts about life not being worth living
- • Excessive worry
- • Feeling out of control
- • Feeling unable to cope
- • Changes in the way you think
- • Unusual ideas
- • Hearing voices or seeing things that others cannot
- • Thinking about harming yourself or someone else
Mental ill health is common, with 1 in 4 people in the UK experiencing a problem each year. Most conditions are managed well through medication and/or psychological services.
Helplines, Information & Advice
Oxfordshire Mind Information Line
Open 9.30am to 4.30 pm Mon – Fri
NHS 111
Open 24 hours
Dial: 111
Samaritans
Open 24 hours
Freephone: 116 123
Saneline
Open 4.30 pm to 10.30 pm daily
FRANK
Open 24 hours
No Panic
Open 10am to 10pm
Campaign Against Miserable Living (CALM)
Open 5pm to 12am
0800 58 58 58
Text based support is offered via their chatline here (https://www.thecalmzone.net/help/webchat/)
Stay Alive Suicide Prevention Mobile Phone App
The Stay Alive app is a suicide prevention resource for the UK, packed full of useful information and tools to help you stay safe in crisis. You can use it if you are having thoughts of suicide or if you are concerned about someone else who may be considering suicide.
https://www.prevent-suicide.org.uk/find-help-now/stay-alive-app/
Further Information
Oxford Health has mental health clinicians working with Police, Ambulance, 111 and A&E in order to ensure that people experiencing mental ill-health who are having contact with the emergency services can access mental health support from the right service at the right time.
Together with our Partners, Oxford Health are currently developing additional services to meet the needs of people experiencing a crisis with their mental health. These developments are happening in relation to our local implementation of the ‘Five Year Forward View‘.