Services for people who are suicidal or self-harming are facing unprecedented demand in England, a BBC Radio 5 live investigation has found

Out of 39 mental health trusts that provided figures for their crisis teams, 27 had seen their workload increase by 70%, and some had seen referrals rise by as much as 60% – but without a comparable rise in funding.

NHS England said an extra £400m would be spent on crisis resolution teams.

Of 54 mental health trusts who run crisis teams in England, one of them, East London NHS Foundation Trust, revealed its crisis team had seen referrals increase from 7,057 to 11,368 last year, a 60% rise in demand.

Not enough money

In 2014, a report for NHS England acknowledged the system was “stacked against” mental health. And last year a further report for NHS England said the majority of crisis teams “are not currently sufficiently resourced to operate 24/7, with caseloads above levels that allow teams to fulfil their core functions”.

Staff members have said that their referrals are increasing all the time, but without the money to deal with the increase.An NHS England representative said: “NHS investment in mental health services is rising faster than for other services and this includes an additional £400m invested in crisis-resolution home-treatment teams from this year so that all areas are able to offer 24/7 emergency care to those who need it.”

In January, the government published its response to a taskforce report into the state of mental health services. It said that it would accept the recommendations in full and would deliver “additional investment of £1bn a year by 2020-21 to improve mental health services”.

“As the prime minister has said, it is this government’s ambition to tackle the burning injustices that persist in our society, including the inequalities caused by poor mental health and the continued inability of many people to get the mental health treatment they need,” it said.

Amanda Cavanagh, a medical negligence specialist at Ashtons Legal, says: “Everything boils down to money. Perhaps we need to be considering what is causing this huge rise in mental health issues and address the source rather than trying to play catch up. Unfortunately more and more cases are coming to light of failing the patients and their families which ultimately has lead to tragic suicides”.