"Access to geriatric mental health"

I was very worried about a friend for whom I have caring responsibilities.

I wanted to contact the Community Mental Health Service run by Southern Health to let them know. My first problem was how to get in touch with them. Their website has no email addresses or phone numbers. Please can this be changed?

When we finally made contact they were very helpful. But then we hit a second problem.

My friend was getting worse rather fast and the weekend was approaching. But the out-of-hours community mental health service is not available to people who are classed as geriatric. We had nowhere to go for help except the out-of-hours GP service or by ringing 999. Neither were appropriate.

My friend is just over 70 so he falls under geriatric mental health. But he has had mental health issues for 50 years so this situation didn't seem to be related to his age.

This feels like age discrimination. Why should there be no service after 5 pm or at weekends to someone who is old when there is a service for someone who is not old?

(Everyone connected with the service has been excellent and my friend is now under a very good CPN. My comments are about the way the service is organised, not about the staff).