Shetland Lifeline

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3.3 What about a ‘safe house’?

A visit from a member of the crisis service (or two, if there may be a personal safety issue) may result in an agreement that the person needs to come into a place of safety. Service users expressed the desire that an informal ‘safe house’ be provided by the crisis service. Transport could be provided or arranged by the visiting worker(s). They would also take note of any children, pets, etc who will need attending to and ensure that provision is made.

Respondents would like a safe house to be: an ordinary dwelling house (three or four bedrooms), homely, calm and peaceful, secluded and inconspicuous. Close to but not right in the centre of Lerwick; with space, where appropriate, for the client’s children, partner, parent or friend to stay.

Peer support can be strong and extremely valuable, and another service user may visit or stay as agreed. While at the safe house, the client can be helped to access services that may help to resolve the crisis and/or improve their ability to cope in the future – GP, CMHT, Women’s Aid, CAB, Advocacy, CADSS, Art Therapy, etc. according to individual needs, preferences and priorities. Staff could provide transport and perhaps accompany the person on initial appointments. They could also take the client home and help them, e.g. to clean and wash-up if they have been unable to cope with domestic chores for a while.

For some respondents, support in their own home might be best, so this needs to be an option too.

The majority of respondents wished, if possible, to remain in Shetland. Although there may be a need for a break from their usual responsibilities and from unsupportive relationships, they did not want to be separated from supportive relationships.

3.4 What should support staff do?

Respondents’ universal experience of Cornhill Hospital is that staff are too busy with paperwork, each other and other patients to talk to them, and that they are left alone most of the time. What they would like is for someone they know and trust to ‘be there’ for them, be alongside them, and not be distracted by other duties; able to give their full and undivided attention. Someone with a caring nature, experienced personally (an ‘expert by experience’), who knows about people in crisis. A good listener, quiet, gentle, someone who is strong and capable – “So you can lean on them and they won’t buckle.” A shoulder to cry on.

“Whilst there were many aspects of the crisis houses appreciated by service users, the key issue was the nature and level of interaction with staff that was made available to them. Having someone to talk to in times of crisis is a relatively simple need and not that difficult to achieve, through the development of small, local crisis services founded on an ethos of humanity and respect”. (Conclusion Mental Health Foundation Report, Being there in a crisis 2002, which looked at 8 mental health crisis services across the UK).

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