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The family of man who took his own life say they tried to contact their local mental health crisis team in the days before his death, but couldn't get through.

Pete Morris died at the age of 29. He had developed mental health problems after a relationship breakdown.

His family tried to get help when he wrote a suicide note and went missing, but they could only leave a message on an answering machine.

His sister Abbie Warren says she thinks weekend provision from mental health crisis teams is inadequate.

"When you're in that situation as a family and you're completely desperate... you turn to the professionals and that's what we did, we were waiting for some professionals to turn up and assess him and help us, and they didn't," she said.

At the inquest into Pete's death, the coroner found no fault with the 2gether Foundation Trust, and Crisis Services at the trust were rated 'outstanding' by the CQC in 2015.

A 5 live investigation has found that mental health community crisis teams in England are facing unprecedented demand. The service is meant to help people when they are facing extreme distress. Seventy percent of them have seen a rise in referrals in the most recent figures obtained through a Freedom of Information request. At the same time, 5 live has seen anecdotal evidence of the system failing to cope.

In January, the Department of Health said that it would take on board the recommendations in full of a taskforce report into how to improve mental health services. As part of that it would make sure mental health services got an extra billion pounds a year by 2020/21, and it says it will hold NHS England accountable for the spending of the extra funds.

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