In December 2024 NELFT embarked on the co-produced design and modular build of a new 24/7 Mental Health Crisis Assessment Hub, with an ambitious 3-month timeline to opening in March 2025. The service provides a safe, welcoming space for residents across northeast London in urgent mental health crisis. The hub offers immediate access to professional and lived experience support and serves as an alternative to attending local accident and emergency departments.
At the heart of this project was an ambition to truly co-produce a relational model of care that is compassionate, therapeutic, responsive and accessible. It has improved the experience of people in crisis by:
* Offering round-the-clock access to mental health professionals and support from people with their own lived experience.
* Providing a calm, therapeutic environment
* Diverting people away from busy emergency departments unsuited to their needs.
The hub is open to NELFT residents aged 18 and over with urgent mental health needs who do not require emergency medical treatment. Access is available via:
* Walk-in attendance
* Telephone calls
* Referrals from local partners including the London Ambulance Service, local police, primary care, and community teams.
The hub is staffed by a fully integrated multidisciplinary team, including several peer support workers. This skill mix is utilised in innovative ways to enhance relational and therapeutic ways of working, enhancing the capability of the team to engage in high-quality collaborative risk formulation and safety planning.
The service was coproduced with people with lived experience of mental health crisis, ensuring it reflects the needs and voices of the community. It is also supported by MIND, who provide suicide prevention expertise and advice.
Since opening in March 2025, the Hub has supported over 800 individuals, with only 20% requiring admission to an acute mental health bed, meaning most people were able to remain in their community and close to their families, loved ones and wider social support networks. To date, the Hub has also enabled over 300 people to be diverted from local emergency departments, giving them quicker access to the help they need in a calmer, more therapeutic environment.
The service model is underpinned by key equity principles of being autism-informed, trauma-informed and anti-racist, with lived experience integrated throughout all aspects of the service design, development and delivery. It is also aligned with national ambitions to expand and improve the quality and accessibility of community care for people, with a visit from our local MP for Ilford North and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting.
