Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board is set to pilot an out-of-hours telephone service to support people who are having a mental health crisis.
The ‘111’ number is already used for urgent but not life-threatening out-of-hours calls under NHS Direct Wales.
It wasn’t designed to deal with mental health calls. However, pilots elsewhere in the UK have shown that having a ‘111’ mental health service can cut the number of mental health-related admissions to accident and emergency departments by up to 25%.
A report discussed by Cwm Taf Morgannwg’s Mental Health Act Committee earlier this week (pdf) said that 1% of calls to ‘111’ during the first three months of 2020 were mental health-related. This is the equivalent of around 1,700 calls.
Cwm Taf Morgannwg began work on a mental health ‘111’ pilot in May 2021. The aim would be to direct people suffering from a mental health crisis to the right service/professional care (not everyone needs to go to hospital) and prevent people from repeating their story several times over.
A pilot mental health ‘111’ service is due to launch imminently, starting with a weekend out-of-hours service on Fridays (18:30 – 22:00) and Saturdays & Sundays (14:30 – 22:00).
The longer-term aim is for mental health services to be provided 24/7 on ‘111’ from April 2022 (the report said April 2021 but I assume this was a typo).
