"Mental Health Crisis - Access to psychological support"

The friend of a parent trying to access mental health support for his 23 year old son has contacted Liverpool Mental Health Consortium to report his concerns about the Talk Liverpool IAPT service - part of Mersey Care NHS Trust. He said that when Mersey Care/Talk Liverpool won the tender to deliver Liverpool's talking therapy/IAPT services (from April 2016) one of the 'selling points' of the new service was that it would accept self-referrals. The previous service (Inclusion Matters) had generally required a GP referral. However, in this case, the father and his son had tried more than once to refer the son - who was experiencing suicidal ideation - to Talk Liverpool but had been unable to make an appointment. Instead, they were referred to a local A&E service (not run by Mersey Care).

Both father and son were desperate by this stage but did not want to go to an A&E Department as the son felt he was in need of psychological support. They felt let down by Mersey Care/Talk Liverpool and felt that the service had been mis-sold in terms of access/self-referral. Waiting for several weeks/months for support was not an option and the family friend who contacted us was trying to help them by seeking alternative talking therapy/counselling services which could be accessed more or less instantly - even if this required paying a fee. We were able to provide a couple of potential options for them.