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.

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Reviews (47)

Not helpful at all and waste of time

March 23, 2019

I have rang these guys up many time due me feeling unwell and I have to say they not good with support. Am well annoyed the fact they are a crisis team n they can't help n I was refused by the psycatrist three time and still I am not well at all I shouldn't have be going through this it so unfair on me

Anonymous

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

I am sorry to hear that you continue to struggle with your mental health. if you would like to discuss you concerns please ring SPA on 01924 316830 and ask for Cate.

Disgusted

February 22, 2019

Ring up for help, which it took best part of 3hrs just to dial the number to be told to see my gp...and they wonder why mental health system in trouble. If they helped people at the first point of contact and put support in place or even a friendly voice on the phone it would reduce admissions, save money. This is the last place I would ring when in crisis, they make u feel like a time waster that’s over exaggerating. Disgusting

Anonymous

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

I am sorry to hear of your dissatisfaction with the Single Point of Access. I would be happy to meet with you and if you would find it helpful staff from Healthwatch. You could either contact me on 01924 316830 or through asking Healthwatch to make contact with me.
There can be various appropriate reasons why we might appropriately ask a person to contact their GP in the first instance, but to understand whether this was appropriate in your situation I would need to have more details. John Price Single Point of Access Manager

"This isn't the Samaritans"

December 30, 2018

Really dissapointed again by the Crisis Team. There really needs to be more training. To say to someone in crisis who finds it hard to speak out that this isn't the Samaritans is actually horrific. I agree it's not the Samaritans and I was told that during the gap till my psychologist returns if I was in crisis out of hours I SHOULD contact the service. I have said this before and I will say it again because something seriously needs to be done... apparently according to the crisis team there is a 'correct' and an 'incorrect' way of dealing with your own crisis!

Emma

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

Hello Emma
Thank you for agreeing to meet with Clare and myself to get more understanding of your disappointment with SPA. Whilst I will not got into details of our conversation here I hope that you found it helpful. As I said when we met, it really helps to speak to Service Users when they have constructive thoughts about how services can be improved. I agreed that I would acknowledge this on this site.
May I also wish you well with your on going recovery. If you feel the need to speak further please do not hesitate to contact me. Kind Regards John

Terrible experience

October 19, 2018

I rang after they where rude to a relative who was in a crisis with their mental health, I rang and expressed I was extremely concerned. I was greeted by a rude lady (I know her name and would like to take this further!) The way she spoke to us I am still in shock. No help, no advice, no support and no compassion!! This is the only number to ring out of hours in a crisis all I can say is wow! I hope no body else in a crisis has to experience this attitude and service I really hope they don't.

Anonymous

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

I am John Price the manager of the Calderdale and Kirklees Single Point of Access. Firstly let me apologise for your experience. No one who calls the Single Point of Access should be left feeling as you have felt.
You are right we are the Out of Hours services when someone is in Crisis and I would want to ensure that your experience is not repeated. To help me with this please could I ask you to contact me. In your review you write that you have the name of the person who you spoke to and if we have the time and date I can access a recording of the call and investigate this.
You could either contact me directly to speak about this. My telephone number is 01924 316830 or you could ask Healthwatch to either be involved with this on your behalf or have them involved in a meeting or you could contact our Customer Services and to ask them to deal with your complaint
By Phone: 01924 316060
By email: customer.servicesSWYT@nhs.net
by post: Customer Services
South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Block 10, Fieldhead
Ouchthorpe Lane
Wakefield
WF1 3SP

I do hope that you get back to us in the way that you feel is best for you so that we can hopefully resolve this to your satisfaction. John Price

Good advice given,

October 8, 2018

listened and were very supportive, helped me with advice and information and will follow on with further support

Anonymous

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

Thank you for taking the time to acknowledge the support that you have received from the Single Point of Access. It is very much appreciated and I hope that Services will continue to support your recovery.
Kind Regards
John Price
Manager Calderdale and Kirklees Single Point of Access.

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

Single Point of Access (SPA) - Mental Health*