what to do when crisis team wont step in?

for example i tried to get them to step in with my mother last week who was intoxicated and had overdosed on pills, she was also saying she wanted to die.

crisis team wouldnt step in due to her being drunk and their only advice was for me to go sit with her for up to 8 hours and wait for her to sober up and then call them back, come on now, are they serious?

they also rung my mother and called me back to say that they didnt think she was THAT drunk and that she had promised them she wasnt doing anything harmful...wtf? the crisis team, who deal with this sort of thing every day, believe a suicidal woman that shes not going to do anything silly? and how could that man tell me my mother wasnt THAT pissed, she bloody well was, i know her, i know when shes drunk and how drunk she is.

now please tell me, what is the next best thing to the crisis team? can you imagine how many desperate people there would be out there who miss out on having someone step in, cos they are drunk in top of suicidal, taking pills, slitting wrists or whatever?

im sorry you want to kill yourself please call us back when you are sober? Hmmmm somehow i dont see how this works, can anyone shed some light please? thanks

Morning, I can't shed any light hun, but i can share my experience with them and it wasn't good. Some years back I had started a trust to help out children. Long story short, the accountant that I was using also suffered from mental health issues. It took some time for me to work out what was indeed happening, but after many unusual behavioral outbursts, I was able to get to the bottom of the problem and see it for what it was, so still continued to use her and at times give her support. That meant her shareing with me and at times I would take her to princees margaret hospital when she needed help and support. Again long story short, one afternoon she phoned me to say she wanted me to pick up her two very sml children as she wanted to kill herself. I rung the crisis team, which I had contact with at times and explained the conversation and asked for help. They asked me to go sit with her until they could get there. I delivered my children elsewhere, as there was no way I could take them into that situation, bloody scary and went over to wait for the troops to arrive. When I walked in she had a bloooody big knife sitting in front of her and I had to find away to remove it without her freeking out. The house was a shambles to put it mildly, the children were a mess and I was shit scared. I did get the knife away and managed to calm her, but she was in one hell of a mess. I waited and waited for that team to arrive. they phoned me at least 3 times, they also talked with her. They gave me instructions to not take to children, just to sit and wait and be patient they were on the way. I had to unlock doors so they had access, which by the way is not easy when you have someone very paranoid and watching your every move. I had to find ways to have her trust me whilst I was breaking her trust by allowing assess to her home. I ending up doing things like just holding her rocking her, brushing her hair. Beleive me, its probably one of the scareiest nights of my life and for bloody hours whilst they tried to assess if they realy needed to be there. When they did finally arrive the idiots knocked on the door, having aready been told which door they could access through, they didn't listen and put all of us at risk. Finally, within about 2mins, they realised the situation was bad and called in the police to remove her. I took the children for a few days and then had to put up with them having given out my details to the estrange husband, whom I was also told was not to have the children, because of past history. I was then visited, abused, by this man, put in a position of having to deal with the childrens lawyers, etc etc. I dont have alot of faith in these so called crisis team. I had hoped they had changed, but that night this lady and her children were lucky to survive and it wasn't because of the people that she/I should have been able to rely on. If I was in that position again, I'd be damned if I would wait for there help, I would be demanding police assistance and come hell or high water, they had better get there, I can be very mean, lol..

Hi there FedUp.

If there was a next time. Maybe try ringing the police instead of the crisis team. That way they can take her to the cells and wait for her to sober up and then she can talk to the crisis team.
The police are able to take her into the cells, and arrest her under Prevention of Suicide. It just means they are able to hold her until the crisis team can see her. and like no charges are filed or anything. (unless she not too keen to see them and hits them, but even then they are not keen to charge her)
This has happened to me a few times when the crisis team wont step in. And to tell you the truth I am grateful to the police. (most of them)

Best Luck.

hmmm the crisis team said do NOT call the cops as they would ONLY be interested IF my mother had broken the law and that they have NO time for drunks!!

Well, Thats crap.

The times they have been called to me I never broke the law.

If there is a threat to a life (whether is the person own life or others) they have to act!

well i will know for next time cos i know there will be a next time, thats twice in 3 weeks, thanks!!

I know exactly where you are coming from - I had the same experience with the "crisis team" with my partner. The fact that they will not assist with people who are drunk is a huge failing on their part. It is when people are intoxicated that they are at most risk! Alcohol and depression are a bloody awful mix, and it is not an uncommon situation. I know I desperately needed their help a couple of times. The first time I could really have done with help I didn't know about them and called the Police which I didnt really want to do but had no other options anyway as I later established upon calling the crisis team in retrospect.

Second time I needed them partner ended up in hospital and we saw a mental health team the next morning. Partner said they'd be useless... guess what, he was absolutely spot on. They were completely ineffectual.

Third time we ended up going to his Mum's, and partner received treatment from the most effective mental health treatment professional we had seen to date... my partners dog!

haha @ partners dog, priceless. thanks for your post, even though it was not intended to be funny, that put a smile on my dial, thanks!!

I OD'ed on sleeping pills one night when I was drunk, txt my mate goodbye and she rushed round, got me and took me to hospital where I stayed overnight. Next day they decided I was fine and sent me home. I barely remember that night and the next couple of days.

I told my dr about it and he contacted the mental heath crisis team people at the hospital. They told me that I wasn't high risk of commiting suicide. WTF I actually tried to kill myself and thats not high enough risk for you?!!?!

Tbh the only reason I think Im still here today it because that gave my family and friends the wake up call that I very seriously needed help and support and thats what got me through.

i know aint it a joke?

i know a few years back, my mum actually called the crisis team on ME cos i felt so down n out and felt like ending it (but not really) and i had to talk to them on the phone and the lady (and i recall this crystal clear) told me that i just needed a good sleep.

now i do know that a sleep CAN help a little bit, but i was clearly saying that i wanted to die and they tell me to go get a good sleep? i wonder if anyone has taken that literally and topped themselves after a call to the crisis team lol, idiots (the crisis team that is).

ffs y'know the last few years we had all this education around mental illness, know me before you judge me, the celebs on tv talking about mental illness yet our own mental health structure is a joke and not really there to help unless you tick all their little boxes and fit the criteria to be helped.

oh and might i add, i know some screwed up people working in mental health (inlcuding my MOTHER) can you believe it, shes one of the worse i know, so called supporting others yet cant even get her own life straight, or even support ME!!

Well in saying "i wonder if anyone has taken that literally and topped themselves after a call to the crisis team lol, idiots (the crisis team that is)."

I am sure a person who was an ex member of here, I am sure she is dead. And the crisis team talked with her on Friday. I am sure on Friday night she hung herself. (I havent heard from her in 6weeks. Her phone is off, and no-one picks up at her house)

I think its up in Auckland. they ask you to leave ur number and name, and they will ring you back. is it just me or yeah.
Sorry I have a problem with Auckland Crisis team, as a good mate killed herself, 2 months eariler she got told she was attention seeking.

woppow wrote:Well in saying "i wonder if anyone has taken that literally and topped themselves after a call to the crisis team lol, idiots (the crisis team that is)."

I am sure a person who was an ex member of here, I am sure she is dead. And the crisis team talked with her on Friday. I am sure on Friday night she hung herself. (I havent heard from her in 6weeks. Her phone is off, and no-one picks up at her house)

I think its up in Auckland. they ask you to leave ur number and name, and they will ring you back. is it just me or yeah.
Sorry I have a problem with Auckland Crisis team, as a good mate killed herself, 2 months eariler she got told she was attention seeking.

yeah isnt it a sad state of affairs? i wonder if this thread could be emailed somewhere? is there a mental health minister? (sorry might be a dumb question lol).

Its not just the AKL team that's useless. It's the same here too. I called for help after a friend left a suicide note, I told them he was capable and had a gun but they thought I was exagerating and even told the friend that, well he shot himself! They didn't even take his guns from him, knowing about the note and that he had been harassing his partner and acting obsessively, go figure.

I also had personal experience with them and they didn't help and because of the way I was treated, I almost did end it, I fought and struggled with myself on my own trying not to go through with it for my kids sake that was the biggest battle I've ever faced. But I don't have that same fight now as I did then.

Nice picture Angelique and Woppow,

That sucks about the crisis team, wonder if we should send our thoughts somewhere!

What are your thoughts on them Mylife? Have they let you down too?

To tell you the truth I have never used them, have been put off using them with what I have been told.

I just think their experiances suck to be honest!

is there anywhere that we can forward this thread?

Damn I may go and raise this with my local MP. It just is not good enough, and I supect he might welcome someone talking to him about something totally unrelated to perks, flights etc, seeing that I'm in Epsom

Seriously, what the hell is the point of a Goddamn "crisis team" if they intervene in an alcohol induced crisis, which is most of them !

I rung the team one night, I felt so bad. Not suicidal, but totally helpless and hopeless.

They simply spoke to me, and kept asking me what do you want us to do?.....All I could think was, your the expert, you tell me.

I do think there are many in the whole mental health arena, that shouldnt be there.

Well my husband was on suicide watch and all they did was phone us. He was later diagnosed as extremely ill but they refused to visit the house. In hindsight I should have insisted and when they refused, rung the police. I mean, where do you turn when you are in a crisis with a mentally unwell person FGS?

This is really putting me off ringing the crisis team if I need them.

Hmm, Mylife. Yes some people have had bad time with crisis teams, Including myself. But they have also pulled through for me a few times as well.

I know they have also pulled for a few of my close mates.


But dont be put off calling them. They are good, even if some times they dont do what we need them to at the time.

thanks woppow, hope you are ok now,

I have had a pretty rough time with Crisis (Psych Emergency) to the point where I asked my Aunt who I am very close to, to collect me and take me to the hospital, they couldn't get me respite but to add to the indignity of the situation they made a hurtful comment about my problem being that I had no friends and was just lonely. I walked out of the hospital but managed to get into respite the next day, only to OD a couple of days later... oh and get discharged from psych care 2 days later. I hate the way the system really ignores the overall care of the individual, it's not like I want to be hospitalised but I'm like a duck up sh*t creek without a paddle at the moment.

Recently I had to use the services of the "crisis team" . The lady I spoke to was very good - and reasonably reassuring under the circumstances. The problem came when I had an appointment with my Doc the next day and the supposedly faxed information that I had spent half an hour pouring my heart out to her about didn't arrive at my mental health team and they had no idea that I had phoned crisis at all. I had left it with my Doc that if I did phone crisis - which would only be if I really needed to - that I would need a respite bed immediately. I was really p. off and my Hubby and I felt really let down. I know they are understaffed etc but the left hand doesn't seem to know what the right hand is doing. Its very frustrating as they are a much needed service for us when we are very unwell. I am sorry that you were treated in such a horrible manner. How dare they make judgements about your support system and friendships. I hope you are feeling better than you were!! Remember you have a support system right here - we all understand how frustrating it can be.