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​​Get Answers When You Need Them

Like any other health crisis, it’s important to address a mental health emergency quickly and effectively. With mental health conditions, crises can be difficult to predict because, often, there are no warning signs. Crises can occur even when treatment plans have been followed and mental health professionals are involved. Unfortunately, unpredictability is the nature of mental illness.

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When mental illness is present, the potential for crisis is never far from mind. Crisis episodes related to mental illness can feel incredibly overwhelming. There’s the initial shock, followed by a flood of questions—the most prominent of which is: “What can we do?”

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Unlike other health emergencies, people experiencing mental health crises often don’t receive instructions or materials on what to expect after the crisis. That is why we created  "Navigating a Mental Health Crisis: A NAMI Resource Guide for Those Experiencing a Mental Health Emergency."   

 

This guide containing potentially life-saving information for people experiencing mental health crises and their loved ones outlines what can contribute to a crisis, warning signs that a crisis is emerging, strategies to help de-escalate a crisis, available resources and so much more. Inside the guide, you can learn more about the following:

• Understanding mental health crises

• Preparing for a crisis

• What to do during a crisis

• What to do following a crisis

• A sample crisis plan
  
   

Share with Your Community

We encourage sharing these tools and resources in local communities, specifically with those who are most likely to be in contact with people experiencing a mental health emergency, like:

• Emergency departments

• Law enforcement officials

• Primary care physicians

• Court clerks where involuntary commitment processes are initiated

• Anywhere a person in crisis might be seen for the first time
  
   

A Portable Treatment Record from the Crisis Guide is available

for download and use to begin creating your personal crisis plan. 

 

You can also download the following info-graphics. They cover

warning signs, what to do if you expect someone is thinking about

suicide and how to prepare for a crisis. These printable resources

are a great way to spread awareness about what to do in a crisis.
 

• Warning Signs of a Mental Health Crisis

• Signos de Alerta de una Crisis de Salud Mental

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• Warning Signs of Suicide

• Signos de Alerta del Suicidio

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• Preparing for a Crisis 

• Preparación para un caso de Crisis

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