If you pay for a private psychiatrist assessment and are diagnosed with something do the NHS accept it?

[Ghib]

I believe my son has a specific MH condition and it's hard enough to get a GP appointment never mind a referral to a psychologist for a diagnosis.

If I went private for an assessment would they accept that diagnosis and treat it as such or would they still want an NHS Dr to diagnose?

A nurse is not qualified to diagnose.

Also bipolar is highly heritable.

Bi polar is notorious hard to get diagnosed op. No a nurse shouldn't be diagnosing or diagnosis this but she will have good knowledge. Was this a mental health assessment appointment or at a crisis team? I'd request a re referral via the nhs if I were you. More than likely it would be your gp prescribing meds under the advice of a psychiatrist so you could always ask your gp if they would prescribe if he was to go private but some may not wish to follow guidance unless njs.

There’s are also different types of bipolar where the manic and depressive episodes present differently and in different ratios. The nurse doesn’t sound very informed. You need an experienced psychiatric doctor.

I think in this situation it would be fair to request a private psych assessment if you don’t feel you are receiving the help your son needs, There may however have been something lost in translation as a mental health nurse would generally not be overt in an assessment appointment about a diagnosis. however it’s not always a case of a single assessment and there’s a single diagnosis, bipolar often takes time to be diagnosed. I went private for my child after having a huge wait due to covid and then a horrendous assessment appointment with camhs and it was well worth the cost.

I don't think you could diagnose bipolar in the same way as ASD or ADHD. It would take a CMHT assessing and engaging with you for a number of years to know if it was bipolar. There could be other explanations.

These are a few of the reviews for this place.

I wasn't asking her for a diagnosis at all!

He was there because he is suicidal. She told him the GP can 'deal with him' and she's not sure why he's there.

I mentioned bipolar when she made a comment about family history (she didn't ask for family history) and she started telling us he doesn't have it. We had been sat there 4 minutes.

She made no assessment of him at all really. Just basically said as he's not hell bent on killing himself today it's not their area and back to the GP you go.

They've said about talking therapy (waiting list of a year plus)

I'll never understand why people ask why people want a diagnosis, why on earth wouldn't you want to know if you had a health condition, mental or otherwise?

I mean the reviews are gonna be shit OP ….it’s a crisis centre

If the outcome of a diagnosis is likely to be a controlled drug, it is difficult to find a specialist/GP willing to set up a shared care agreement. If the outcome is for talking therapy, you'd still be back in the NHS queue for treatment. If you think talking therapy will help, go private and stay on NHS list.

Do you have a mental health access hub in your area OP?
My partner was seen and assessed in one within 24 hours of phoning in crisis. From there, they began a working diagnosis with weekly appointments beginning 2 weeks after his assessment, EUPD diagnosis followed. There was no messing around or wait lists with them so it's worth a check If your local trust has one.

Very few people are ever happy with mental health services. So I wouldn't trust reviews. People want answers and it's really difficult to give them that after one meeting/ crisis. Over time, if there is a pattern, if there are frequent highs and lows, manic episodes, risky behaviour then maybe. But it would require a lot more appointments than just one to come to that conclusion. Even people who are sectioned rarely walk away with a diagnosis. That first episode could be a one off, it could be a stress response. Some people have a one off breakdown and then never have any further episodes.

I think it depends on both the nature of the condition and the local healthcare authority. My son got a private ADHD diagnosis (from someone who still works in the NHS part-time) but my local healthcare authority refuse to acknowledge it unless the diagnosis has been made within the NHS system. It's infuriating. He's had the same assessment he would get in the NHS, from a clinician who has 25 years experience in their field and has worked at the highest levels within the NHS, but my local authority won't accept it...

That's what it was. The mental health crisis team. But they've discharged him.

An access hub is not the crisis team…..it’s where you are signposted onto after a crisis appointment

I have bipolar type 2 and it took several meetings with the NHS psychiatrist to get diagnosed. It’s not something that can be diagnosed in a single meeting. I was being treated for severe depression and it wasn’t until I went back 2 weeks later hyper manic that the psychiatrist very gently suggested that it could be bipolar.

Getting the right medication also takes time and they sometimes need tweaking. My GP has taken over my repeat prescriptions and has to refer me back to CMHT if they need changing which in my area takes around 8 weeks.

If are concerned I would ask the GP to refer you to CMHT with a detailed description of how his moods cycle, the family history and why you are concerned.

How old is he? Is this CAMH? Or if he's an adult why are you going along there and asking for a diagnosis to be made. Should that not be for him to do?

If it's CAMH then a bipolar diagnosis will it be made in adolescence

They didn't do that though. They just told him to fo back to GP.

He's 18 and suicidal. He's very young for his age. He's unwell.

I'm in my 40s and find it hard to deal with this stuff, I'm mentally ill too, I absolutely wouldn't have been able to deal with it alone at 18!!

Thankyou for this advice x

He's kept (a very upsetting) diary since March which shows his ups and downs so that may help but I'm not sure if he would want to share the details.

The crisis team are not a diagnostic service. I understand why it might feel that walking away with a diagnosis and medication is the cure, but these are serious and lifelong conditions and not diagnosed easily. The point of the crisis team is to ensure they are safe at that point in time. I get it, it's fucking heartbreaking to not know when and if a crisis will happen again. All you can do is go back to the GP and ask for a referral to a CMHT. Explain your son's recent crisis and whether this is one of many, the severity etc. There is private mental health service though, so even if a psychiatrist offers to diagnose, the vital part which is the ongoing treatment, coping strategies, awareness, education about the condition would only come from a CMHT.
Could the money be better spent on counselling?

A crisis assessment will always concentrate on suicide risk. A crisis assessment is not a suitable scenario for making a long term diagnosis. It might be you are expecting something from the wrong service ie the short term crisis assessment service to stump up a psychiatrist for a diagnostic assessment but that's not how it works.

There will be a slower stream GP referral route which is more appropriate for making a long term diagnosis. He would need to keep a mood diary over the long term as evidence

Or you can obviously pay to see a private psychiatrist. When you say do the NHS accept it what do you mean by accept? If you want an NHS GP to prescribe meds that a private psych recommends they will only do that if they are comfortable with those meds or if there is a shared care agreement so the answer is 'it depends'
If you want the NHS to give him a particular service based on the private diagnosis this is unlikely to happen as they will make their own assessment of suitability for the service which is not based solely on having a particular diagnosis or not.

Oh my gosh.

I'm not saying they are a diagnosis service!!

I'm saying she shouldn't have said anything as they're not.

It's not her place to diagnose or tell him he isn't bipolar.

We went there to get help. I thought to give a full picture of what's going on I should mention his dad's diagnosis as its family history and I said I can see alot of the same behaviours his dad has

Instead of her saying 'well that's something we can deal with down the road / thanks for letting me know that but we need to focus on this right now' etc...

She said 'no he doesn't have that, put that out of your head right now'

How could she possibly know that from a 5 minute conversation?? It's not her place to say he does or doesn't have it and I wasn't not asking her opinion on it, I was simply giving her his family history

No necessarily but obviously noted and taken into account. Psychologists don't diagnose either.

She probably meant that he doesn’t have a diagnosis of that…..I know these places, they are stressful.,,,lots happening…..lots said, easy to get the wrong end of the stick…..I wouldn’t dwell on it….get him referred to the CMHT asap