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AIBU?

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Original poster

OUR MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES

22 replies

hutala · 07/02/2019 12:02

probably cross posted with other threads but I think it's awful.

I've struggled for years. I was in and out of therapy as a teen. I have just found the confidence to go and ask for help after having DC.
I've been told I need to 'self refer' to our community wellbeing service which helps with 'brief' problems and offers up to 12 counselling sessions.
I've been told it'll take a few days for my self referral forms to come in the post, then up to 4 weeks for an initial assessment call and then up to 6 months to commence weekly appointments.

I just feel like this whole thing is a disgrace. The fact that I could be waiting a month to even get the ball rolling, to then be potentially waiting 6, and then to only get a maximum of 12 sessions and that's it.

I feel hopeless.

OP posts:
MouseUtopia · 07/02/2019 12:18

There are no mental health services. There are no mental health services for children and young people either.

Bombardier25966 · 07/02/2019 12:23

You think that's bad? The waiting list for psychodynamic therapy in my area is three years, and that's after you've been through initial assessment, so closer to four.

Assessment for autism? Three years.

Remember this next time you vote.

Bombardier25966 · 07/02/2019 12:25

(That wasn't a dig at you @hutala, just that CBT waiting lists are the tip of the iceberg. People aren't being helped when they first need it, so their health gets worse. And those with severe mental illness are essentially left to rot.)

punishmepunisher · 07/02/2019 12:26

Yeah, it's not great. The NHS is beyond underfunded, and MH services seem to be dissolving completely, not that they were ever great.

The MH help I have had has been utter utter crap.

I went private, there was no funding for the kind of support I needed on the NHS. It just doesn't exist.

MouseUtopia · 07/02/2019 12:30

Camhs was just as bad under Labour.

YouSayPotatoesISayVodka · 07/02/2019 12:30

Mental health provision has always been woefully underfunded and I would agree it’s worse than ever. Not a huge surprise though after so many years under the Tories.

MouseUtopia · 07/02/2019 12:32

If you call an ambulance for an emergency you're lucky if it turns up.

x2boys · 07/02/2019 12:33

I worked in mental health for over 20 years (not an more) there has certainly been a drive in the past ten years or so to cut services I would as mental health services were far better when I started my nurse training back in the early 90_s not great but much better ,just to point out services were being cut under Labour too , I was redeployed twice in in year I
Between 2005 and 2006

Bombardier25966 · 07/02/2019 12:37

Agree that services were poor under "new" Labour, but nowhere near to the extent that they are now. Now it feels like they might as well not exist, and the services are so scant that they can actually do more harm than good.

TinyMarie · 07/02/2019 12:38

It's also really unfairly dependant on where you live. I struggled for years when in London and when things got to their worst, I was stuck between two teams where neither wanted to take me due to my postcode not being in the same catchment area as my GP. A day after a phone consultation telling someone I was suicidal, they discharged me back to the GP because of where I lived.
I now live in the South West and was phone assessed and seen within a week. I had 12 sessions of CBT and can refer back at any point. There is no parity and people should not fall through the net based on Geography.
The whole thing is quite terrifying!

Stompythedinosaur · 07/02/2019 12:55

Mental health provision is diabolical at present, mainly due to low funding.

I'd encourage people to raise this as an issue to their MP.

Biancadelriosback · 07/02/2019 13:02

It's #timetotalk or something day today. I've never felt so alone.

sometimessometimes · 07/02/2019 13:19

We have had a positive experience with MH services in our area. DH was depressed, and one evening, suicidal. Police called, then ambulance called, he was taken to an assessment unit then to a residential treatment facility for a week to get the help he needed before being referred back to his GP for various follow ups and prescriptions. All free on the NHS. I was amazed, and grateful!

AwkwardPaws27 · 07/02/2019 13:26

@hutala if you do paid work, check if your employer has an employee assistance program. I had 4 free CBT sessions through mine which helped me with some short-term coping skills while I waited (a year) for NHS therapy.
There are some good self guided CBT books (Reading Well for mental health scheme in most libraries) which might help in the interim.

TaimaandRanyasBestFriend · 07/02/2019 14:16

Oh, yes, the good ol' 'time to talk' and 'get help'. Pretty hard to do when it's not there! A wee chat on the phone and then . . . As for practical help if your mental health is in the toilet due to circumstances like having a child with SN, well, they might give you some tablets to take and that's about it. YANBU.

Namechange8471 · 07/02/2019 14:21

Same here op.

7 years for my daughter to be diagnosed with autism.

I was on the waiting list for CBT, I almost killed myself waiting, stopped eating and has to get my partner to watch dd I was that bad.

Hope you're ok Flowers

futuredayspast · 07/02/2019 14:29

YANBU, it's shit. DH had to wait over 6 months for his CBT, then another 6 to see an actual psychiatrist when it turned out his condition was more complex than the initial referral had suggested.

I'm in Scotland so it's not even the Tories to blame here, it's the SNP.

It is largely a funding issue but also I think there is a culture in parts of the NHS of not taking mental illness seriously.

BartonHollow · 07/02/2019 14:33

Mental Health Services seem shocking whilst waiting - but they are even more shocking once accessed, valuable help that is actually sustained and works just isn't there

WindowsSmindows · 07/02/2019 15:55

Actually I think YABU.
I think what you've been offered is quite good, it's just a pity you've you wait 6 months, within 12 weeks would be better.
But you describe long standing problems which are not severe.
You can self refer which is easier simpler and quicker and you'll be assessed within a month, I think that's bloody brilliant actually.
12 sessions is optimum, more than that might not do any good, the sessions are a guide for you to do the work on yourself.
I do hope you feel better soon.

GloryforGloves · 07/02/2019 16:11

mental health services were far better when I started my nurse training back in the early 90_s not great but much better

Whilst that is most likely true, do you think it might also be due to more people trying to access services these days? The provisions and expectations that MH awareness would increase should have been put in place long ago.

I agree completely that they are terrible. Part of my job is signposting and I feel disingenuous when I know that they are unlikely to help.

x2boys · 07/02/2019 18:17

Whilst more people might be trying to access services there are increasingly fewer servives, far less bed s , fewer community services ,t the older persons and adult day hospital s which provided access to in and out patients s were closed years ago , as was the Rehab ward which also had a number of respite beds

Treble9 · 07/02/2019 18:33

"If you call an ambulance for an emergency you're lucky if it turns up."

If you call an ambulance with a genuinely life threatening emergency it will turn up.

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