To think it’s unusual to be under cmht for five years

[User5272]

With cuts to services etc. When talking to a friend today who’s been under them with no breaks for five years said it’s quite common. I always thought the aim was to stabilise people then discharge them back to their gp.

I an an RMN, it's very usual to have people on caseload for many years. Some people don't experience a recovery meaningful enough for them to be discharged, others who receive depot medication / cloazapkne need to stay on caseload due to meds management.

I've been under my local cmht since my firstborn was 7 weeks old. He's now 5. I've asked about being discharged but due to my diagnoses (trauma/attachment related plus I had a psychotic epsiode after dc1 was born) and the fact that I have young children the consultant psychiatrist in charge of the team won't allow it.

Not at all unusual. My family are psychiatrists. People that are on 117 aftercares, that are on long term controlled psychiatric drugs (ie Clozaril), that have been sectioned many times etc will often have CMHT intervention for decades or the rest of their lives. It’s part of what helps to stabilise them. GP’s don’t have enough training to be solely responsible for the long term stability of those who have very complex mental health illnesses. Plus the strain on GP services would be completely unmanageable.

Thank you

I think it depends on the condition. I have bipolar disorder and a history of hospitalisation. I've been in recovery for a while now, but psychiatrist has said he doesn't intend to discharge me - that way if I do relapse I don't need to go through a long slow referral process.

I work in mental health services. Whilst I agree there is a current drive to have people in services for a much shorter length of tone, there are some people who will be under CMHT many years. Some will likely never be discharged.

Better to be under the CMHT for 5 years than in hospital for 5 years, which would have been the alternative 30 years ago.

Spidey66 That’s awful that people didn’t get the chance to live in the community

Very....some women were on them for having illegitimate children and ended up too institutionalised to leave.

I’ve worked in mental health and learning disability nursing since 1986. I remember a lovely, lovely old woman I worked with in mid 90s in an learning disability unit. She was a favourite with the staff as she had a lively sense of humour and you could sit with her and have a lovely chat. She didn’t appear to have a severe learning disability.

She had a nephew who would visit roughly monthly....there was a suspicion amongst the staff that he may have been her son who she’d had illegitimately and she was put in hospital and her son adopted by her sister. We didn’t know for certain....but it would have been a possibility.
By the time I knew her, she was crippled with arthritis so she would have likely ended up in a care home, but how sad if our theory was correct.