Single Point of Access (SPA) - Mental Health* Healthwatch Kirklees

Single Point of Access (SPA) - Mental Health*

*If you contact the Single Point of Access after 8pm each weekday or at the weekend or on a bank holiday - please search for Intensive Home Based Treatment Team and leave a review there. Thank you. The Calderdale and Kirklees Single Point of Access team receives all referrals for mental health services in Calderdale and Kirklees. The team directs all the referrals to the most appropriate Trust services or advises the referrer of the best organisation to contact. The team screens all referrals for urgency i.e. whether they need a response within 4 hours, 24 hours or 14 days. They meet with people who have been screened to need a 4 or 24 hour response (urgent referral) face to face to assess their needs and also sees some people who need an assessment within 14 days. The single point of access team also provides a 24 hour, 7 day a week helpline for service users and can offer advice to referrers at any time. It also manages all inpatient ward beds in Kirklees and provides a gatekeeping service to assess whether people need to be admitted to hospital or can be nursed in their home environment. It does this along with its sister team, Kirklees intensive home based treatment.

Leave your feedback

Reviews (42)

Few good nurses

September 14, 2018

It depends who answer the phone, but there's a couple or few good nurses. my new Dr is a breath of fresh air to folly hall-hope he stays.

Anonymous

Reply from Single Point of Access (SPA) - Mental Health*

Thank you for your feedback. We continue to work to improve the service that is provided.

Can't get through on the phone!

September 12, 2018

Been trying to make an appointment, was trying the number 01924 316830 and listened to a message saying the number had changed to- 01924 316830!!!! Can not make an appointment. sort your phone out!!!

Anonymous

Reply from Single Point of Access (SPA) - Mental Health*

Can I apologise for this message. You are correct that this is an out of date message and I will get it changed as soon as possible. I have asked the provider to make the change.
First of all though I hope that you have got through to SPA on the number and have been able to book an appointment. If not and you would like to speak to me - I would be happy to call you and facilitate an appointment for you. You could do this by letting Health Watch have a number on which I can contact you and they would be able to pass this on to me if that would help.

Let me explain the error with the message and thank you for pointing this out to me as you are the first to highlight the error.

SPA changed its telephone number around 2 years ago and to ensure that people phoning the old number did not get confused or have to redial a new number we transferred calls through to the new number. This had an expense to us attached to it so when we were confident that people were familiar with the new number we eventually stopped transferring calls through to this new number. In order to help people be aware that the old number, which some still phoned, would eventually no longer put them through, we put that message on in the hope that they would note the new number whilst still getting through to us on the old number that they had dialled.

You are right however that we should have changed this message. Your taking the time to let us know that this is no longer a helpful message is appreciated and we will change it.

Shockingly poor

June 4, 2018

This service is not fit for purpose- if you are experiencing severe mental health problems- Don't bother with this service! They're incompetence and sheer neglect will make your issues worse and just add to feeling completely alone and suicidal! Everytime i attempt to get help from this service, I'm left gobsmacked at how appalling poor they are - so much for zero tolerance on suicide- if I do kill myself - which is likely due to complete lack of help from this so called service - I AM HOLDING SPA RESPONSIBLE ......

Anonymous

Reply from Single Point of Access (SPA) - Mental Health*

Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. It would be really helpful if we could understand why your experience of using the Single Point of Access has been unhelpful. As the Manager of Calderdale and Kirklees Single Point of Access I would be happy to speak to you personally on 01924 316830 or if you would like your concerns looking into and some individual feedback providing and would prefer to contact customer services on 0800 587 2108 or customer.servicesswyt@nhs.net please contact them.
I am also very happy to work with the staff at HealthWatch to help understand and resolve your unhappiness if you prefer to work with them.

Absolutely terrible

March 26, 2018

This service is so bad. I make no wonder people have worsening mental health problems

Anonymous

Reply from Single Point of Access (SPA) - Mental Health*

I am sorry that you feel that we have not provided you with support and I welcome Healthwatch Kirklees as it can help us to understand both our strengths and areas where we need to develop. I wonder if you could get in touch with me so that I can understand what has left you feeling like this.
John Price Calderdale and Kirklees Single Point of Access. 01924 316830
If you do not feel that speaking with me would be helpful could you contact Customer Services on:
email: foi@swyt.nhs.uk and customer.servicesswyt@nhs.net
Freephone contact number: 0800 5872108
They are very supportive in helping to resolve complaint.

Disgusting

March 22, 2018

Waited nearly a week after leaving a message for someone to get back to me urgently

Lauren scholefield

Reply from Single Point of Access (SPA) - Mental Health*

Dear Lauren
I wonder if you could contact me so that we can look at how this happened as I would not expect anyone to have to wait nearly a week for someone to get back to you. Understanding how this happened will help me ensure that it does not happen again and to offer you an apology.
I can be contacted on 01924 316830 John Price
If you would prefer to go through a more formal route then you could contact our Customer service Team on:
email: foi@swyt.nhs.uk and customer.servicesswyt@nhs.net
Freephone contact number: 0800 5872108

Incompetent

February 20, 2018

I called for help when I was suicidal and was given a telephone number for psychological services which is the counselling section not the intensive home based treatment team who should be dealing with someone who is suicidal - absolutely incompetent, uncaring and dangerous... this is not a mental health support service it's a hindrance to really ill people who are trying to get help...

Anonymous

Reply from Single Point of Access (SPA) - Mental Health*

Firstly let me apologise for your experience of Calderdale and Kirklees Single Point of Access (CKSPA).
Whenever I reply to Service Users on this site I make my name and phone number available. This is to give people who feel unhappy with our service an opportunity to discuss it directly with a manger. Hopefully this will help me to resolve your complaint and it also helps us to improve our Service. (John Price 01924 316830).

If you phoned CKSPA feeling suicidal you should have been put through to a clinical member of staff. I apologise that this did not happen. I have spoken to our admin staff and our clinicians and reminded them of the importance of this.

My hope is that our priority would always be to place the service user or member of public at the centre and treat them with dignity and respect. Again if that has not been your experience I apologise sincerely. I am happy to speak to you further if that would be helpful. Please see my phone number above.

Terrible

October 25, 2017

After been assessed 15th August I'm still waiting to see someone 2 months later when called by me or GP there having a meeting. It's fine I've been let down by every care system all my life so join the club

Lisa jennings

Reply from Single Point of Access (SPA) - Mental Health*

Hello Lisa
I am sorry to hear your comments. You are suggesting that you are waiting for a response from Services. Could you call me please and ask for me as soon as possible and I will give it my personal attention. Thanks. John Price SPA manager 01924 316830

Mostly helpful

October 17, 2017

Phoned a few times when been Suicidal. Normally really nice and helpful. Normally get through to female staff who are always really nice and help you make a plan even if its just to get you through the next few hours. Always been told to ring back if I need to. Once I spoke to a man who wasn't in the slightest helpful. But apart from that one bad experience I've always had positive experiences.

Anonymous

Reply from Single Point of Access (SPA) - Mental Health*

Thank you for your mainly positive report. I think that offering you a plan, even for the next few hours, can be really helpful, particularly when you know that you can call back if it is not working. I am really sorry that a male in the team was not as helpful. I will speak to our team and convey your experience, both the positive and the unfortunately negative. Our aim would be to provide a consistently positive response to people who call us. If you would like to discuss this further please feel free to contact me as the manager. John Price 01924 316830

Happy for you to hurt yourself

September 6, 2017

I called today in extreme distress wanting to harm myself after advice from carers support to be told there was nothing they could do I said you don't care and hung up
No one chased up despite my history of self harming and feeling suicidal they don't care and won't help

Naomi Walker

Reply from Single Point of Access (SPA) - Mental Health*

Naomi
I am very sorry that you have been left feeling so upset about our Service. It is so important that if a person contacts our Single Point of Access they feel heard and supported. I would like to ensure that this is thoroughly investigated so that we learn from your experience. In order for it to be investigated I wonder if you could contact our Customer Services on:
0800 5872108
customer.servicesswyt@nhs.net
John Price
Manager Calderdale and Kirklees Single Point of Access

Waiting over 60 minutes for a response

July 25, 2017

I am a professional wanting to make a referral to the crisis team and needed immediate support with an issue, I was on hold for over an hour and could not get through! Terrible service!

victoria WElls

Reply from Single Point of Access (SPA) - Mental Health*

Dear Victoria
I am sorry to hear about your experience of waiting for a call to be answered. Whilst we are a very busy service I accept that such a wait is far too long and indeed unacceptable. As a result of your comment I have made contact with our Telecoms manager to look at possibilities of managing this more effectively. I wonder if you could call me so that we can discuss this further and apologise personally to you. If I am not available please leave a number on which to contact you. - John Price.

Single Point of Access (SPA) - Mental Health*