We welcomed officials from the Department of Health and Social Care to our Thanet Safe Haven on Wednesday.

Their visit follows the open letter we sent to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, calling for greater consideration of non-clinical alternatives to A&E departments.

It was a great opportunity to show how services, like our co-located Safe Havens, can reduce pressure on A&E.

In the past year alone, our out-of-hours crisis services have delivered over 43,000 support sessions, often help people who may otherwise have had no option but to go to A&E or call emergency services.

We are calling on the government to invest more in non-clinical crisis services to help the voluntary sector gather more evidence on their impact and important role within mental health pathways.

A huge thank you to everyone who shared our open letter to the Department earlier this year.