A mental health charity is working with the NHS to transform how people access mental health support in Bath and North East Somerset.

Mental health services in the area had been criticised as “insufficient” in a recent report into how people accessed services during the pandemic. Healthcare watchdog Healthwatch identified the difficulty in getting seen by services and how poorly joined-up they could be were key issues raised by people seeking support for their mental health.

But a local charity said it has been working with the NHS over the last 10 months and the picture is already changing.

Now anyone needing support with their mental health can contact Bath Mind’s “front door” on 08081 751 369. Calls are free and the phone line is available seven days a week, from 7am to 11.30pm.

Bath Mind CEO Kate Morton said: “Anybody can ring that number if they’ve got concerns about themselves or a loved one and they can just talk it through with a wellbeing practitioner.

“And it might be that we can support them directly; it might be that we can then provide a more relevant service that they can get in contact with and we’ll help them do that. We don’t just leave them to do it. Or we can then escalate to our NHS partners if the severity of illness is something we can’t deal with.”

Bath Mind is an independent mental health charity serving the whole of Bath and North East Somerset.

The charity also now has a team of practitioners based in the emergency department at the Royal United Hospital in Bath, working with people who come in due to mental health reasons and referring them to Bath Mind, rather than NHS services.

Although people were positive about Bath Mind in the Healthwatch report, an issue was raised about how long it could take to be referred to them after going to hospital. Now Ms Morton hopes this will speed up the referral process.

She said: “We just need to work with them to get them into some safety plan and think about what next and how we can help.”

RUH Chief Medical Officer Andrew Hollowood said: “One of our goals is to work with our community partners to create one of the healthiest places to live and work, and so we’re delighted to be working in partnership with Bath Mind on this fantastic initiative.

“This is helping people to get the care they need in the right place and we’re already getting really positive feedback from both Emergency Department staff and patients.”

A spokesperson from Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust added: “We are pleased to be working closely with Bath Mind to support the collaboration working with vulnerable service users in Royal United Hospital Bath”.

Bath Mind is not an NHS registered provider itself and prides itself on providing care in a non-medical sense. Ms Morton said: “We are non-clinical providers in the community. That isn’t to say that we don’t have registered people working for us — mental health nurses, […] counsellors — but we pride ourselves on offering that alternative to the healthcare system.”

The charity is keen to keep people out of hospital where possible. Ms Morton said: “They are not great places for people.”

Bath Mind runs a range of services: from community groups, counselling, and benefits advice, to a registered care home and training for organisations. They support people from the higher end of need, to people dealing with loneliness and anxiety.

Ms Morton said: “We are able to work with somebody on that pathway – on their journey – so we can see them all the way through. We don’t just hand them over to somebody else.”

Every evening, the charity runs an in-person “breathing space” in the centre of Bath, where people can work with trained staff to have some “time and support,” and to develop a plan for what they need and want. People can get access to the space by calling the “front door” number.

Ms Morton said: “Mental health often falls into those wider social determinants, where people don’t have warm dry affordable housing, they have relationship breakdown, they may be in debt and have financial crisis. So we provide support around all those issues.

“We don’t just do the one issue; we don’t just deal with your mental health issue. We deal with all those other factors which could be affecting your mental health.”

Bath Mind currently runs 17 groups but Ms Morton said there was demand for three times as many. The Covid pandemic brought with it an increase in people seeking support for their mental health, with Bath Mind seeing a fourfold increase in people getting in touch.

Ms Morton said: “There isn’t enough care because there isn’t enough money, and demand is outstripping supply.

“What I would say though is it might be that care in a clinical medical sense isn’t always needed, and what’s really exciting about this transformation model that we are just launching is that we are looking at a way of doing this differently.

“By Bath Mind being the front door to all services, we can then work somebody to assess whether it is care as such they need, or whether the care can come from a non-medical practitioner in terms of more supportive, self-care, resilient strategies to stay well.”

Anyone in need of support with their mental health can contact Bath Mind’s “front door”, whatever their level of need.

Ms Morton said: “We never take risks. […] We are trained to know that if somebody is very very unwell and needs immediate attention, then we have access to all the right organisations to contact.”

She added: “We will make sure that we never leave someone stranded if they are very unwell.”

The rollout of the “front door” over the last ten months has been a “soft launch.” Bath Mind plans to extend the service to GP surgeries in the near future.

You can contact Bath Mind’s “front door” on freephone 08081 751 369 from 7am to 11.30pm, seven days a week.

Bath Mind has more information about what resources are available.

If you need help now, you can find more details from Bath Mind here.