Crisis What Crisis: Being in a mental health crisis
A report by the User-Focused Monitoring (UFM) research project
October 2004
Introduction
Following a large consultation exercise within the local service user community the UFM project decided to look at the experiences of being in a mental health crisis in Bristol. Work took place between September 2002 and October 2004. This resulted in the report Crisis…What Crisis?
We were interested in how people defined what a crisis meant for themselves, where they sought help from, what kind of help they got or not, how mental services interpreted and responded to their crisis. We also talked to people who had experienced a mental health crisis but had not used mental health services. The project also looked at non-specialist sources of help and support at times of crisis, for instance friends and families, telephone helplines etc. and what coping strategies people resorted to.
Altogether, over 120 people were interviewed, in two phases, recruited through the mental health Trust (Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health in Partnership Trust - AWP), or through adverts placed in the community.
The recommendations made in the Crisis report are currently forming the basis of an implementation group.
The report was presented at a number of events organised for service users and staff in Bristol and beyond, such as conferences in other parts of the country as well as in France recently. The UFM model is increasingly being recognised as a valid way of evaluating mental health services and service user experiences of using those services.