Editor's blog: No-one should experience crisis care responses we saw

Some people are moved by numbers. Most of us are moved by what we have seen with our own eyes. Often, the people who need the support the most are the ones who are least likely to get the help they need.

It is now three weeks since we spelled out the priority causes Mental Health Today will champion on behalf of our readers. At the time, I promised I would expand on personal experiences partly driving our direction of travel.

"I know that the police were the last people she needed or wanted to see at the time, while her period in hospital, though it may or may not have saved her life, diminished and terrified her for several years. The information and solutions weren’t visible, weren’t available, weren’t offered when we needed them ten years ago and in the intervening years. I don’t want anyone to have to go through the many things we went through."

Why are we doing all of this?

I'm involved with Mental Health Today because I want to play my part in stopping individuals and families going through the personal, relational, working, emotional and mental pain that so often accompanies episodes of crisis. Ten years ago, I came too close to losing a relative to suicide through a combination of crisis and poor crisis response from those she had every right to expect to be able to trust and rely on.

She had been the victim of a sexual assault, she was not believed by the police, who treated her appallingly, and she suffered a series of worsening breakdowns. At least three suicide attempts occurred. On each occasion, the police were the external authority that intervened. Can you imagine how you’d feel in her shoes?

On one occasion she was detained in a cell for 48 hours; on another she was detained in a hospital for 72 hours. I know that the police were the last people she needed or wanted to see at the time, while her period in hospital, though it may or may not have saved her life, diminished and terrified her for several years. Group therapy was the mental health care that affected real change for her in the end. It was precious but it took her years to even know about this, let alone follow it and for her sense of security to be retained.

What moves you?

One in four people do not get the crisis care they need when they need it and irrefutable evidence published today shows it is getting worse. Earlier this week we learned that people are having to travel away from their homes in 80 percent of the country in order to get the help they need.

Some people are moved by numbers. Most of us are moved by what we have seen with our own eyes. Often, the people who need the support the most are the ones who are least likely to get the help they need.

The information and solutions weren’t visible, weren’t available, weren’t offered when we needed them ten years ago and in the intervening years. I don’t want anyone to have to go through the many things we went through. For this reason, it’s so important to me that Mental Health Today don’t just publish the solutions, but it shares them with everyone who wants to see them. The only way we can do this without putting up a subscription wall is through each of you making a small donation.

If we were to put up a paywall, a readership of 70,000 would collapse overnight. We might bring in more money to invest in our journalism and website, but we wouldn’t achieve change that would help you. We would isolate those scouring the internet for constructive information, both families in crisis and commissioners and policy makers looking to create new services.

We encourage donations of £5 only and we hope and trust you will give what you can.