Mental health traffic lights
Overview
what to do if you need to talk to a professional or you are in a crisis, using traffic lights
- green = I am ok
- amber = I am struggling and need to talk soon
- red = I need help now, I can't keep myself safe
Things to avoid
Don't mess with your meds! Avoid self medicating or prescribing; don't stop things early; be careful and listen to your GP.
Green
Being “okay” doesn’t mean you cannot help yourself to feel better.
What can you do?
Sleep
- https://web.ntw.nhs.uk/selfhelp/leaflets/Sleeping Problems.pdf
- https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/insomnia/
- https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/sleep-and-tiredness/
Food/drink
- https://web.ntw.nhs.uk/selfhelp/leaflets/Food for thought.pdf
- https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/for-your-body/eat-better/
- https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/for-your-body/drink-less/
- https://web.ntw.nhs.uk/selfhelp/leaflets/Alcohol and You.pdf
Exercise
Remote working
Other
Our Agile Collective Mental Health Loomio thread and google doc log
What can Agile Collective do?
We can still help here though, possibly with various wellbeing tools, these may include things such as:
- Humidifier
- White noise machine, glow light to aid sleep
- Sun lamp
- Ongoing purchases - these are generally not something we provide, but we will be of course be open to requests if you feel something is in particular benefit to your mental health
If you feel any of these would be beneficial to you (and you don’t feel it is something you could just purchase on the card), please do bring your requests to the people circle as normal.
Amber
- GP
- You can ask your GP to refer you to your local NHS service to get help from healthcare professionals.
- You can also ask your GP to refer you to your local Adult Mental Health Team if you have other MH problems such as hearing voices or severe anxiety or severe depression
- In addition your GP can prescribe medication. This is a discussion to have with them. any prescriber should tell you about the pros and cons of medication AND what you can do alongside medication. Medication alone is not recommended.
- IAPT
- If you want psychological help; in England this is "IAPT" (Improving Access to Psychological Therapy" (but they all have their own names for this across the country. I don't know why)
- This service is for people who have MH problems such as anxiety and depression.
- In Oxfordshire this service is called "TalkingSpace Plus" you can self-refer on their website or call them see for more https://www.oxfordhealth.nhs.uk/talkingspaceplus/.
- In other parts of the UK if you google IAPT plus your county you should be able to find similar services.
- AMHT’s (Adult Mental Health Teams)
- In addition to psychology help AMHT's have psychiatrists who can prescribe medication.
- Mind
- In addition to NHS services local MIND organisations (in England) often run short courses on different topics. In Oxfordshire you can find out more here https://www.oxfordshiremind.org.uk/wellbeing/short-courses/
- Private Psychologist
- If you want to find a private psychologist you need to make sure they are accredited properly. go through the British Psychological Society (BPS) website.
- Note: "psychologist" and "therapist" are NOT protected titles that require registration. you should look for someone that details what type of psychologist or therapist they are. https://www.bps.org.uk/lists/DIR
- In Italy this appears to be “Consiglio Nazionale del l'Ordine degli Psicologi” https://www.psy.it/ or “Associazione Italiana di Psicologia” https://www.aipass.org/ but members who live and work in Italy and perhaps speak Italian will have to look into this in more detail.
Some things that may also be of help here
- Clic-uk.org - “Clic is a free UK-wide online community here to support adults with their mental health”
Red
If someone is very worried about their mental health then there are a lot of different support options.
- Samaritans
- you can call 24/7 on 116 123
- https://www.samaritans.org/
- Shout
- You can text SHOUT to 85258 for a text conversation
- https://giveusashout.org/
- Emergency Services
- You can call 111 or 999
- present to A&E if you are thinking about hurting yourself (self-harm) or you have self-harmed and need medical attention and/or if you are thinking of ending your life (suicidal thoughts) or have taken action to do so.
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