On Air Now Non Stop Music Midnight - 7:00am Kings Of Leon - Use Somebody Schedule

NHS Advice If You Experience Mental Health Crisis On Isle Of Wight

If you're an Islander experiencing a mental health crisis you should either call 111 or go online.

It comes as the Isle of Wight NHS Trust launches its new five-year strategy aimed at “improving the quality, experiences and outcomes” of mental health services on the Island.

The NHS Trust says it is not going to be providing purpose-built mental health centres, instead it will use “primary care services”

The Isle of Wight NHS Trust launched its mental health crisis support website during lockdown to support Islanders and Isle of Wight Radio’s been told it will “continue indefinitely”.

If you make the call to 111, the Hampshire and Isle of Wight wide service will ensure a mental health nurse answers who can access the Island Health system, so they can offer you tailored support.

Director of Mental Health and Learning Disabilities, Dr Lesley Stevens says “it’s a really good service”.

She said:

“It depends as there is never going to be a one size fits all but for everybody, we now have access through 111 to really great mental health support over the telephone - that’s something we put in place through lockdown and will continue indefinitely.

“If you dial 111 and you have a mental health problem you will be put through to a senior, very experienced mental health nurse and we have seen that’s had a real impact for people in reducing the people that need to come into A& E for example - which is not a good place for someone in a mental health crisis.”

The Isle of Wight NHS Trust's mental health crisis website has a "consistent level" of around 250-300 Islanders visiting it a day.

Acording to the Trust, the next stage of the development will be to make it more interactive. 

The upgrades to the website are expected to be rolled out from April.

Dr Lesley Stevens added:

“Some people are perfectly comfortable to pick up the phone and talk about it and others are simply not and we obviously have to be very sensitive to the impact of the mental health problem on people’s ability to access, which is one of the reasons we’re so focused on No Wrong Door and opening up access to people.”

The NHS Trust is working with people who use its services, staff, stakeholders in the public, community and voluntary sectors and its partner organisation, Solent NHS Trust to develop the new five-year strategy called the ‘No Wrong Door’ model.

It’s understood the new model for local mental health and learning disabilities services will deliver an Island-wide network of services made up of three elements.

  • The Local NETWORK will provide services for people with a low complexity of need which will be based and delivered in local areas alongside partners like GPs and community and voluntary sector organisations.
  • The Island HUB will provide community mental health services that are coordinated centrally but delivered in local areas or as an island-wide service. The Island Hub will provide services for people with moderate and high complexity needs.
  • The ACUTE Centre will provide support for the people with the most complex needs and will be managed and delivered centrally from Sevenacres in St Mary’s Hospital in Newport.

More from Isle of Wight News