"Crisis Teams (2gether Trust)"

My review is of the Crisis Team in Cheltenham. I have found their methods and approach unhelpful. There is too heavy an emphasis on distraction techniques. While these can be helpful at times, they do not help in every situation nor for every person ! There is a need for a more individual approach - focusing on the needs of the individual rather than using stock phrases which patients openly deride because they can predict what is going to be said to them. Additionally, if a person is highly distressed and has strong suicidal intent, they may well have reached the point where they cannot "distract" themselves. The crisis team seems to have difficulty recognising when this is the case.

On one occasion, the police were called to my home for a welfare check. They wanted someone from the Crisis Team to assess my mental capacity. They did not want to leave me until that was checked. I was finding it hard to speak at all at that point. The phone was held to my ear by a police officer, and the crisis team member on the other end of the phone (who did not know me because this was the night team which is sourced from all three areas of Gloucestershire) said that if I could just say whether I wanted their help or not, they would leave me alone. I was only able (eventually) to say one word after a considerable number of attempts by the crisis team member to encourage me to speak. I said "no". I said nothing else to her. The police told me that she had assessed me as having capacity as a result of uttering that one word. In retrospect, that is highly worrying. I understand that calls to the Crisis Team are now recorded. That is a positive move because incidents like the one I have just described can be reviewed.