If your mental or emotional state quickly gets worse, it is a mental health emergency or mental health crisis. When this happens, you need to get help quickly.
If you’re having treatment or were treated for a mental illness, you should have a care plan. Your care plan has names and numbers to contact in an emergency.
If you don’t have a care plan, you should:
- make an emergency appointment with your GP or your GP out of hours service when the emergency is at night, weekend or a public holiday
- go to a hospital emergency department
- Out of hours service
Caring for someone who is having a mental health emergency
If you’re concerned about someone’s safety but can’t get them to an emergency department or keep them safe, you can telephone 999.
If you or someone you know needs help, and you would like to speak to someone by telephone, you can telephone Lifeline free in confidence, 24 hours a day:
To read more information about mental health, go to:
Mental health services for drug or alcohol problems
There are different mental health services available across Northern Ireland to deal specifically with drug and alcohol-related problems.
For information about statutory, voluntary and community mental health organisations, go to:
Call Samaritans free on 116 123