Lancashire & South Cumbria Foundation Trust has launched a new service that can be accessed through a new freephone number – 0800 013 0707 – so that everyone will be able to easily access urgent or general mental health support, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 

The new approach to accessing mental health services is managed within a call centre setting, based at The Mount, Accrington, and is made up of a team of call handlers and mental health practitioners who take calls and manage referrals from patients, service users, families, carers and professionals, aiming to ensure callers are connected to the right professional in a timely manner. 

The team may arrange for you to receive support over the phone or for a mental health practitioner to see you at home, at a GP practice or another mutually agreed place to allow further information about current mental health needs. Information about other services that could assist will also be shared, if appropriate.

This new approach will help improve access to mental health services – particularly during evenings and weekends – across East Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen where there are over half a million residents, and is part of a wider programme of work across the health system, to transform access to mental health services for local people and their carers who have a mental health need or are experiencing a mental health crisis.

Caroline Donovan, chief executive at Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This is a major improvement for the residents of East Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen who need to access help and support from our mental health services.

“This new freephone number means people will be able to access practical advice and emotional support from qualified nursing staff and where appropriate, access to the right services in a more timely way.”

The Trust has worked with GPs, MPs, and representatives from the voluntary sector, as well as other key stakeholders across the health system, to develop this approach to make sure it meets the needs of patients and service users. 

Caroline continued: “This approach will mean we are better able to meet the varied needs of anyone trying to access mental health support. Whether it be an immediate response, routine appointment booking or even advice on how to access additional information, people will be able to call one phone number and receive the response they need.”

In addition, a partnership between Lancashire & South Cumbria Foundation Trust and SignVideo, the leading British Sign Language (BSL) video remote interpreting and BSL video relay service provider in the UK, means that people from the deaf community living across East Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen are able to access the Trust’s mental health services whether for urgent or general mental health care, via the support of an interpreter by visiting the Lancashire & South Cumbria Foundation Trust website here.