PEOPLE who need help and advice are becoming increasingly desperate, according to two York counselling services which have been forced to close their waiting lists.

York Mind and York Women’s Counselling, independent organisations with trained volunteer counsellors, say they have been inundated by people seeking help, many referred by GPs.

Both services, which collectively see about 50 patients a week, said some people on their waiting lists were so in need of help they had taken overdoses or discussed feeling suicidal.

Alison Moore, counselling and befriending service manager at York Mind, said: “Imagine telling someone to wait a year for counselling when they are at crisis point.

“I have had some very unhappy people who have said they felt suicidal and ‘where were we?’ They have been on the waiting list for weeks and can’t understand why they can’t come in. People have said they have taken overdoses.”

The surge in patients and the lack of available counselling places has coincided with changes in NHS commissioning and mental health services being taken over by the Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. The trust admitted waiting times were longer than it would wish due to funding.

Barbara Webb, a counsellor and trustee of York Women’s Counselling Service, said it had received more than 200 inquiries this year. The service has noticed a rise in people seeking help for past sexual abuse since the Jimmy Savile scandal broke.

Ms Webb said: “These poor people are being passed from pillar to post and I do not know what is going to happen to them.

“We wrote to all York GP practices telling them about the situation but did not get a single response... we do think GPs’ hands are tied.”

The NHS can offer a limited number of counselling sessions, meaning sometimes problems are not resolved, Ms Webb said. “My feeling is the main thrust is the quick fix. You get six sessions of cognitive behavioural therapy, it’s a sticking plaster approach and for a lot of people that is not enough.”

She added: “We have to speak up for a silent group of people.”

York Mind and York Women’s Counselling cover costs with small grants, fundraising and an affordable charge to clients.

A spokesman for Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust said it accepted waiting times were longer than it would wish and it had a shortfall of 27.5 trained “improving access to psychological therapy (IAPT)” workers in York and Selby due to funding levels.

He said the trust was working on how best to use its limited resources.