The crisis team must decide if a 15-year-old boy brought into A&E after trying to kill himself is safe to be sent home, or if he needs to be admitted to a psychiatric ward. As staffing shortages impact mental health services, personnel often find themselves forced to determine what the least harmful option for their patients is. Among the cases they are struggling to keep safe are a man with schizophrenia, depression, acute anxiety and psychogenic seizures who no longer qualifies for the support he relies on, and a woman with a personality disorder who has attempted suicide 15 times in the last three years.