NHS Mental Health Services can be great.

[LovelyBath77]

They saved me. From my DH contacting them they were here in the living room and they helped me. I was in the crisis team to start with then the recovery service and they all helped. They came to see me at home and the psychiatrist helped with some meds as well. They can be so good. I think they saved my life. I hope I can trust them in future but I hear negative things.

[Dawndonnaagain]

Pleased that they helped you and that you're feeling better.
I guess different areas operate differently and some are more effective than others.

[nellifurtardo]

I think it can be great, my grandmother has serious mental health problems and she has great care, is in a specialist home due to her mental health problems. My mother however has had poor/no help. My mum tried to kill herself was in hospital for a day and then left to get on on her own, there was no help whatsoever it was appalling. I'm glad to hear that you have had excellent care and I hope you are doing much much better :)

[harderandharder2breathe]

I'm glad they helped

The only criticism I hear about NHS mental health services is that they're chronically hugely underfunded and therefore have huge waiting lists and can only offer extremely limited help to the vast majority of people.

I had dealings with the community mental health team last year and everyone I encountered was extremely professional, kind and treated me with respect and consideration, I fully expect and believe they treat all their service users like that

However it's good to hear that the crisis teams are still able to respond quickly and effectively when needed. With the services for chronic conditions so restricted, I imagine crisis teams only having more to do as more people can't access help earlier on and avoid a crisis.

[MooMooCat]

That's good to hear, but like most things it depends where you live. DP works with vulnerable people and all they will do is call, never come out and that's for people threatening suicide, attempted suicide in the past. Also the local psychiatric unit has recently closed, so no local service

[LovelyBath77]

It may be because I had psychosis. not sure. I have been told they will see me straightaway if it gets worse again. Husband and I were very glad they helped as they did.

[crankyhousewife]

It varies enormously. I'm coming to the end, hopefully, of a six week hospital stay which could have potentially been avoided had my community psychiatrist actually responded to my GPs request for an urgent appointment.

When I've had a care co-ordinator support has been good but I no longer have one which means getting an appointment with my psychiatrist brought forward isn't easy, as I found. If you're not already "in the system" then referrals can take months which isn't good if you're at crisis point. The crisis team is also hit and miss with some good staff and some not so good.

It's better than it was though.

[Ilikecheeriosyum]

They did help me have someone to talk to when I was going through psychosis,

However after a couple of days they would tell me to "calm down and make a cup of tea"
I was too scared to use the kettle In case I had a hallucination and poured it on myself and burned myself with it.
"Oh well deep breathing then"
They did get me in touch with my psychiatrist who was amazing.

Some of the nurse's weren't very sympathetic but some were incredible and told me of the times they'd struggled themselves and listened as I rambled on about things that made no sense but scared me.

After that they told me to call them any time i needed to and any time I did they said they couldn't do anything and to go to my gp.

My gp was appalled as they are the first port of call in a crisis especially out of hours.

I'd give them a 3/5 :)

[ohdeaeyme]

I have involvement with the perinatal team at the moment and they have been fab!

[iveburntthetoast]

My experience of CMHT, crisis team and hospital is mostly positive. I have an amazing CPN. My area has relatively less demand on services, but I've noticed a significant deterioration over the last year. It's not as well-resourced as it was. It's harder to get a hospital bed and my CPN has to jump through hoops to get the crisis team to take me on.

Most of the staff I've come across are good. Some are amazing. A couple have been power-hungry bastards.

[Sallystyle]

I am glad you got the help you need.

My husband has been let down left right and centre. It's not the workers fault, just the system here. My husband has been ill for over 25 years and always will be. It's a never ending fight of trying to get him the help he needs. Sadly most of the help has come after a crisis and not enough has gone into trying to help him prevent one in the first place, despite us both telling people he is heading towards a crisis and he needs more help right now.

He had an appointment today and the ongoing support in this area will be great. It took over 6 months to get it though.

We have waited since just before Xmas to get him a new care-co. Despite support workers trying to rush it through and help us it still hasn't happened. That is not acceptable.

We used to be able to call the crisis team directly and they would come straight out to him. They can no longer do that without a GP referral. Not much good when dh can't leave the house or we can't get a GP appointment. I miss the security of knowing I can just call them and because he is known to them they would come out ASAP that day/evening.

I have just started working in MH myself and my area is fantastic but far too many people are let down and the results can be devastating.

I don't think I have ever written the word 'crisis' down quite so much in one post.

[Batteriesallgone]

If you get properly 'on the books' the care can be amazing, and if you've been classed as high risk the care tends to be ongoing until you don't need it anymore.

If you can't get past the gatekeepers - whoever does the initial assessment, be that GP, mental health nurse, whoever - then you can get listed as not that bad or a time waster and getting support becomes impossible.

That's my experience anyway.

[CaptainMarvelDanvers]

When it's there the service can be good, the issue is that in a lot of areas the service isn't available because they're running on fumes. More money needs to be put into mental health, it's always being poorly funded but when cuts come it always seems to be on top of the list to reduce it's funding.

[MyGastIsFlabbered]

I'm currently very unimpressed with my local service. I saw them as an emergency the week before Easter and since then I've heard nothing from them. I've left messages but they've never called me back. I'm just about scraping by but it's really bloody tough.

[Sickofkidsprogrammes]

From personal experience I think the mhat in my area were fantastic! From ringing my health visitor to getting an actual appointment on a Sunday morning! None the less, To getting counselling, nothing but praise and thankfulness for that service

[Chocolatefrogs]

So glad you got the help you needed OP

I'm so sorry to hear that MyGast :( is there any chance your GP could refer you, and insist that it's urgent for you to be seen? I realise that this might take a while though, and it also must be incredibly frustrating to chase up support that's already been promised to you. Thinking of you

[LovelyBath77]

Yes it possibly helped that DH got in touch with them when I was very ill and talked to them, he says they were very perceptive.

The psychiatrist said that it won;t need a referral in future to see them but as I'm at a different GPs it will be a different psychiatrist, (different ones are allocated to it it seems) but he said 'he would trust hi with his mental health' so he sounds OK.

I liked mine, he was more human than some, always shook your hand and listened, tried meds like prozac with antipsychotics when he had;t tried that combination before, as it had helped me on its own in the past and the other meds were sedating. Last time we had to ring he saw me and my husband in a few days.

I don;t have a care co-ordinator now since discharge and have been asked to contact something called primary care liaison team who are available between 8am to 8pm which is good.

I do worry a bit through as with the meds things did improve and had a feeling but the time did the psychological therapies team stuff (mainly CBT) they felt I was fine, and wonder whether they will take me seriously next time. But then part of MH can be not trusting people..

[LovelyBath77]

Batteries yes i think that is right. It took some time to get referred and was in a pretty severe way.

[LovelyBath77]

U2 I'm sorry to here about your husband. It seems to be changing and vary, yes we could call crisis team ourselves. Shame they haven;t got something like this phone line I have been given which can lease with crisis and recovery teams. It isn't always easy to get an appt with the GPs and the PCLs is there to advise them as well.

Ilikecheerios I've had odd advice when psychotic as well. Sometime you'd think they'd understand more.

[LovelyBath77]

One thing I did find hard is the people seemed to change a lot. The crisis team did shifts so it was usually someone different and it is hard to meet new people lots when ill, and trust them and have them in the house. The care co-ordinators as well. I remember one bustly afro-caribbean woman who was like a motivational speaker (she scared me a bit) who told me all this stuff she planned to do...next time she said it was her last time and was going to like with her daughter in London! So they can be a mixed bag.

[LovelyBath77]

Do you think it helps if you have a diagnosis? Mine is recurrent depressive disorder with psychotic features.

[crankyhousewife]

I think having a diagnosis can help (mine is bipolar with all that that entails) but up until two years ago even with the diagnosis things were dire. It's only with a new consultant who was brought in to sort things out that things have improved.