NHS 111 will now provide direct support to patients experiencing a mental health crisis, NHS England has announced.

The service expansion announced today means that patients can now call 111, select the mental health option and speak to a mental health professional if they are in a crisis.

NHS staff will then guide them through the next steps, including ‘facilitating access’ to other services or organising face-to-face support.

For patients who need to go to A&E, every emergency department in England also now has ‘a liaison psychiatric team’ which will offer specialist care, NHS England added.

Previously, local health systems had their own separate phone lines, which were fast-tracked during the pandemic and took around 200,000 calls per month, according to the commissioner.

NHS England director for mental health Claire Murdoch said the service will provide specialist mental health support and ensure patients can also be offered face-to-face support ‘in a safe environment’.

She said: ‘We know that record numbers of people are suffering with their mental health, and we want to ensure that when people are in crisis, they have easy, straightforward access to the support they need.

‘While the NHS made significant progress during the pandemic with local services creating their own crisis phone lines, we want to go a step further by giving people everywhere in England one single point of access via NHS 111.

‘And in doing so, I am extremely proud that we will become one of the first countries in the world to offer a free universal package of support to people through one easy to access phone line.’

Primary care minister Stephen Kinnock said that the government wants to ensure mental health is given ‘the same attention and focus as physical health’.

He added: ‘For the first time, there is one number you can call whether you are feeling physically unwell or worried about your mental health to access the support you might need.

‘Separately, we are prioritising mental health by recruiting an additional 8,500 mental health workers to reduce delays and provide faster treatment alongside reforming the Mental Health Act.’

A version of this article was first published by our sister title Pulse