Mental Health Number team at Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust scoop Chat Health “Special recognition Award.”
Last year, NHFT's Mental Health Number team (Integrated Response Hub) launched a new text messaging service. This new service provides exactly the same range of support as the mental health number but is accessible entirely by text message rather than talking on the phone.
The move to providing a text message service 24/7 into crisis lines is mandated by NHS England for all crisis lines within the UK to have in place by April 2026. NHFT is the first service doing this directly within the crisis line, meaning a person texting has the same response as someone calling in by phone.
The 24 hour Mental Health Number launched back in 2020, since then the team have received feedback that the deaf community could not access the Mental Health Number, and that some individuals with neurodivergent conditions, also found it difficult to speak on the phone.
Conversations were held between the Mental Health Number Team and the Chat Health team at Leicestershire Partnership Trust about developing a text messaging service, much like those already in use in other services in the Trust, to enable more people to have access mental health support.
The new text messaging service was developed in early 2024 and had a soft launch in March 2024, with the working hours of Monday - Friday from 9-5pm. Month by month, the number of conversations that the service supported increased, from just 2 conversations in March 2024 up to 165 in June 2025.
In July 2025, the service extended its hours of operation to a 24hours a day, 7 days a week, just like the main mental health number and a full campaign ran to launch the service and the new operational hours. In July 2025, when the service had its full launch, 527 conversations were supported, demonstrating the need for such support.
On 30 September, Christine Edwards, Service Manager of Adult Crisis pathway attended a digital Innovation in Practice conference hosted by LPT which consisted of presentations in the morning and an awards ceremony in the afternoon. Christine delivered a presentation and had a conversation with Modestas Kavaliauskas, Senior Lead for Urgent & Emergency Mental Health at NHS England. Her presentation included some powerful patient testimonials. Those in attendance heard the voice of Jess, a neurodivergent service user who has autism, ASD and additional mental health conditions. Jess spoke about her experiences of using the new chat health service. These are some of Jess' words:
I can type when I'm ready, in my own words, at my own pace. When I first started using chat health, it was 9am-5pm, then it went 24:7, and honestly that change might have been the best thing my local NHS Trust has done. A crisis doesn't stick to office hours. Having help at any time of night or day has kept me safe, more than once.
In the afternoon, there was an award ceremony, during which Christine was presented with the Special recognition Award . You only need to hear Jess' story to understand the positive impact this service is having on patients and service users. It is also enabling some service users access to mental health services for the first time in their life.
The Chat Health text service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on 07480 635531. The full range of mental health support services is available on the NHFT website www.nhft.nhs.uk/mentalhealth