Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what crisis assessment and intervention services are available to young people under the age of 18 in South Cumbria.

Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) has commissioned crisis and intensive support services for children and young people; this is known as the Responsive And Intensive Support Team (RAIST).

The teams work seven days a week from 8am to 8pm. The team providing support in South Cumbria has registered nurses and social workers who provide a full assessment of need and work with children and young people to develop a safety plan, risk assessment and care plan. Once this has been completed, a two-week pathway of care will be identified. The children and young people will have contact daily with the community mental health practitioners to develop new skills to support the prevention of further crisis.

Since the RAIST has been established with the north of the trust, there has been a reduction in the need for attendance to the emergency departments and admission to the paediatric wards.

For those with severe needs or in crisis, urgent mental health helplines operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, are already available in all areas of the country. They are staffed by trained mental health professionals who can provide assessment and referrals to appropriate services. These crisis lines currently take around 200,000 calls a month and received five million calls between May 2020 and April 2022.