What we're fighting for
When you come out of hospital after a mental health crisis, you need the right care and support to help you recover and put your life back together.
You need to feel prepared and confident you'll get the support you need. If you feel rushed and unsupported, you risk becoming ill again. And going back to hospital.
But when we surveyed people about their experiences of leaving hospital, it was a very different story.
More than 33% of people said they were discharged sooner than they should have been.
20% of people weren't given any warning that they were being discharged.
25% of people said they received no support when leaving hospital. 40% left with no care plan.
What people told us about leaving hospital
More than a thousand people used our survey to share their experiences of leaving hospital after a mental health crisis. The results were sometimes disturbing.
We're calling on commissioners, providers and crisis care concordat partnerships to review what happens in their area. Everyone leaving hospital must get the right care and support.
The facts about leaving hospital
Below, you can read about all the work we've been doing since 2010 to make leaving hospital a safer and more supportive experience for everyone.
Alison from our campaigns team has also explained what our campaign is trying to achieve, and how you can help.
2010–2011
In November 2011, after a year-long independent inquiry, we published our crisis care report, Listening to experience. It found that excellent crisis care does exist, but for many the care provided is too late, or there's nothing at all.
2012
In a 2012 survey, we found only 14% of people in crisis got all the support they needed. And our freedom of information investigations found that the support you get depends on where you live. So we sent briefings on how to commission excellent crisis care to all clinical commissioning groups.
In March, we had our day in Parliament. A group of crisis care champions, who all experienced crisis care services, met with MPs to explain what happened to them.
2013
In June we published a report about the use of physical restraint across England. It showed huge variation in how restraint is used. In a single year, one trust reported 38 incidents, while another reported over 3,000.
2014
22 health, policing, social care, housing bodies, charities and local governments signed the Mental Health Crisis Care Concordat. We agreed to work together to make sure people in a mental health crisis get the help they need, when they need it.
By the end of the year there was a concordat agreement in every area in England.
In April the government published new guidance. It promoted therapeutic environments and aimed to reduce the need for restrictive interventions. It said that prone restraint (face down on your front) should not be used deliberately.
2015
In 2015, more official guidance was published on restraint. The Mental Health Act 1983 Code of Practice was revised and NICE updated its guidance on violence and aggression.
By December, the Welsh government, police, NHS and councils had signed The Mental Health Crisis Care Concordat in Wales.
Crisis care was one of the 6 manifesto themes in our general election campaign. Thanks to our campaigners, our manifesto reached 95% of MPs. Campaigners contacted nearly 1,700 parliamentary candidates and asked them to show their support for the crisis care concordat. All the main party manifestos had a section on mental health.
2016
In January, we published 2 guides to help campaigners understand the guidance on restraint. Crisis care was also one of our 4 manifesto priorities for the 2016 Welsh Assembly elections.
2017
In 2017, we found that 10% of people aren’t getting any follow-up in the first week after leaving hospital. We called on NICE to change its guidelines to make sure everyone leaving hospital after a mental health crisis gets followed up within 48 hours.
We also published our ‘Planning for recovery’ guide, to help people take part in their own discharge. And we published the results of our survey, which heard from more than 850 people about their experiences of leaving hospital.
2020
During covid-19, we looked at how the pandemic was affecting hospital discharges. We explored NHS data, NICE hospital discharge guidance, people's own testimonies, and Mind surveys.
