SPIRALLING waiting times for mental health treatment is forcing many desperate patients to turn to A&E departments or the police to get help, doctors have warned. 

Around one in five patients are waiting more than three months to get treatment, according to a survey by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, with 43 per cent saying the delay led to their mental health deteriorating. 

The research involved 535 adults with mental illnesses. 

A significant proportion end up so desperate for help that they turn to A&E or ring 999 or NHS 111, the college said. 

Claire, which is not her real name, 45, from south London, said that she was forced to repeatedly go to A&E over 10 years for help with addiction and other mental health crises due to long waits to get treatment. 

“The only other way to get help was to present to A&E, which was a traumatic experience — having to be reassessed and readmitted again and again,” she said. 

“Turning up to A&E was the only way I could be seen regularly. There is no help when you are discharged and I found myself in this revolving door for 10 years.”

Dr Kate Lovett, the college’s presidential lead for recruitment, said: “Not only do spiralling mental health waiting times wreak havoc on patients’ lives, but they also leave NHS services with the impossible task of tackling rising demand.”

Dr Lovett said decisive action must be taken by the government to tackle staff shortages or waits will keep getting longer. 

The college is calling for a year-on-year increase of medical school places from 7,000 to 15,000 by 2028/29 and a fully funded workforce strategy to tackle staff shortages.