The Care Quality Commission's review of mental health crisis care

Partner organisation the Care Quality Commission (CQC) is reviewing mental health crisis care in England.

The review is part of the CQC's response as a signatory to the Mental Health Crisis Care Concordat, which the Department of Health published in February. This concordat is an agreement between key organisations about how public services can best respond when people with mental health problems need help urgently.

The CQC is asking people who have experienced a mental health crisis, or who have supported a friend or relative through one to share the following information:

• A description of the help, care and support received
• Details on how quickly local services responded
• Information on whether the service helped the person deal with their crisis and recover.

Besides asking the public to complete the online questionnaire, which will be available on the CQC website until the end of April, they are collecting feedback offline from local organisations with first-hand knowledge of how services are working on the ground.

A mental health crisis can be distressing and frightening for the individual as well as the people around them. People with first-hand experience have an extremely valuable role to play in making sure patients get the best possible care across the country.

Improving crisis care is a major priority for this Government, which is why we launched the Crisis Care Concordat this week. It aims to reduce the number of people in crisis being taken to police cells instead of to a health setting, and taken in police cars instead of ambulances. The Concordat gives clear guidance for services to work together so that people in crisis get the support they need to recover.

Norman Lamb MP, Minister of State for Care and Support.

Later in the year, CQC will publish a report on its findings from the review. This will look at the help, care and support experienced by people experiencing a crisis, including differences in approach across the country and highlighting good and poor practice where this is found.

For the full press release and to access the online questionnaire visit the CQC website.