ONE in ten people discharged by York’s mental health trust after suffering a crisis had to wait more than a week for a follow-up appointment, figures have shown.

The data, obtained by mental health charity Mind from responses to a Freedom of Information request, shows that of the 2,842 people discharged from the care of Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust (TEWV), 280 people did not get an appointment or phone call within seven days of leaving hospital in 2015/16.

The trust - which runs mental health services across County Durham, the Tees Valley, and North Yorkshire - took on the running of services in the York area in October 2015.

A former mental health inpatient from York, who asked not to be named, said it was crucial the right support was given to people recently discharged from hospital care.

They said: “If you have gone from the intensity of having one-to-ones or constant supervision to nothing it’s a bit like taking someone off a drug, because they are dependent on the people around them.

"It may make some people feel their life is not worth it as people aren’t bothering to contact them.”

Mind’s national study has found that those who were not followed up within a week, if at all, were more than twice as likely to attempt suicide than those who had a swift follow-up - at 16 per cent compared with seven per cent.

Across the country at least 11,000 people did not get an appointment or phone call within seven days of leaving hospital in 2015/16.

Sophie Corlett, director of external relations at Mind, said: “It is a tragedy that so many people so very recently leaving the care of hospital are losing their lives.”

A spokesman for TEWV said: “We are required by our commissioners, and in line with national targets, to monitor the percentage of adult mental health patients being treated under the Care Programme Approach (CPA) who receive a seven day follow up after being discharged.

"In 2015/16, 98 per cent of our CPA patients received a direct face to face follow up within seven days, against a national target of 95 per cent. Indeed the Trust met all of its national requirements and Monitor targets during 2015/16.”