Get urgent help in a mental health crisis

A mental health crisis often means that you no longer feel able to cope or be in control of your situation. It often involves a sudden or continued worsening of your symptoms. You may feel great emotional distress or anxiety, feel you can't cope with day-to-day life, think about suicide or self-harm, or experience hallucinations and hearing voices.

Below are some suggestions for what you can do if you are experiencing a mental health crisis.

The option you choose will depend on how severe you feel your symptoms are and if you can wait a short amount of time to get help or if you need help immediately.

Please have a read of the options below and decide which one is best for you.

• Urgent mental health support
• Helplines
  
• A&E and 999
• Non-urgent support
• Advice for other professionals
  

Urgent mental help support

If you feel you need urgent mental health support, or someone you care for someone that you feel may be in crisis, please call your local dedicated 24/7 mental health crisis line for free:

• Halton: 0800 051 1508
  

• Knowsley: 0800 051 1508
  

• St Helens: 0800 051 1508
  

• Warrington: 0800 051 1508
  

• Wigan: 0800 051 3253
  

Our crisis lines are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and are open to people of all ages - including children and young people.

If you live outside of the above areas, find your local mental health crisis line on the NHS website.  

What will happen?

When you call this number, one of our dedicated mental health professionals will be able to offer assistance. They will talk to you, listen to your worries and try to understand your current problems. Through doing this, you and the health professionals will be able to make a plan on how best to meet your current needs. This could include:

• Referral for a mental health assessment
• Referral to one of our mental healthcare services
• A recommendation for you to contact your local psychological therapy service
• Referral/advice to contact a different community services for support such as housing, financial advice or drug and alcohol        
  

Helplines

Helplines provide trained listeners and often have other options for getting in touch, like email or web chat.

• Samaritans operates a free-to-call service 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, if you want to talk to someone in confidence. Call them on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org
  
• PAPYRUS HOPELine UK for under 35s can be contacted on 0800 068 41 41, 9am to midnight, seven days a week including bank holidays.
  
• CALM helpline for men can be contacted on 0800 58 58 58, 5pm to midnight every day.
  

A&E and 999

A&E should only be used when there are serious physical injuries which require treatment within the hospital environment.

If you are worried about your mental health but do not have serious physical injuries, for urgent help please call our crisis line:

• 0800 051 1508 if you live in Halton, Knowsley, St Helens or Warrington
• 0800 051 3253 if you live in Wigan.
  

If you feel you need urgent mental health support but also have serious physical injuries, then we would advise you to attend A&E to address your physical injuries.   

Please only ring 999 if you feel you require immediate, life threatening assistance.

For non urgent help

If you don't feel that you need urgent help but would like support to manage your mental health and wellbeing, there are a range of other options you can consider.

• If you are already under the care of one of our services, you can contact them directly. Contact details can be found on our service pages
  

• If you are experiencing a common mental health disorder such as anxiety, depression and/or stress, then psychological therapies can support you. Find out more about your local services below:
  
• Think Wellbeing Halton: 0151 292 6954  

• Think Wellbeing Knowsley: 0151 430 1707
  

• Think Wellbeing St Helens: 01744 647 100
• Think Wellbeing Wigan: 01942 264 051  
  
• Talking Matters – Warrington (external): 01942 264 051
• Access Sefton (external): 0300 303 2708