To think the NHS mental health system is a shitshow?

[ChaoticGouda]

This is probably going to turn into a bit of a whingey rant, sorry

Disclaimer that I'm not talking about most nurses, doctors and staff, who are lovely and doing their best in unfair, overworked and underfunded circumstances.

However in my years of going into and out of the doctor's office for help and support, the feeling of being pushed out of CBT because I hadn't made enough improvement during sessions, the dismissal both I and loved ones have had when going to GPs about any issue other than depression/anxiety...

Plus the fact that specialist clinics for things like ADHD, EDs, etc (especially for adults) are still hard to access and shockingly underfunded despite these issues becoming increasingly talked about amongst the general public...

Of course I'm grateful we have an NHS, grateful that I'm not forced to pay for everything like in some countries, and grateful that I'm safe and relatively comfortable enough to be complaining about this. I'm definitely luckier than a lot of people on the planet, and I know it's a less-pressing issue to complain about, on the grand scale of things.

Still not going to stop me from complaining, though!

YANBU.

@FluffyKittensinabasket

I briefly did some temping in an NHS mental health centre. It was awful, every day patients would phone up screaming or crying down the phone. I had to ask the nurses or psychiatrists to ring the patients back and they hardly ever did (probably because they were snowed under with patients) and the patients would keep phoning getting angrier each time.

The staff in general seemed extremely fed up and tired and none of them actually seemed to care about the patients.

This has been my experience from working on the reception/admin side of these type of clinics. I think it's due to chronic understaffing, when someone highly qualified leaves they don't even advertise to replace them. They just expect other HCPs to absorb that person's work as well as their own. Its very prevalent in NHS management thinking to look at someone leaving as an opportunity to save money rather than reinvest in the service. I'm sure they are motivated by budget constraints and government targets and we desperately need more money for it all.

I work on a paediatric surgical ward. We really really struggle with kids with mental health issues. We just don't have the skills or the staff to deal with it.

@thrownaway

Thank you very much for taking the time to write such a detailed reply. We were recommended to go privately for an adhd diagnosis years ago and it was the best money ever spent as once we had the diagnosis our son slotted straight into CAMHS instead of the long wait. Fast forward to now and we have been waiting for months for some help. My son is having violent mood swings, is by turns aggressive and angry (smashed up my phone, holes in the walls etc) and the next minute self harming, crying and wailing in his room (he's 20). I feel our normally brilliant GP surgery are just passing us from one external agency to another and in the meantime he is self medicating with 'other' substances and his behaviour becomes more and more embedded. We're at our wits end. Every day is a nightmare not knowing what mood he'll wake up in. This morning we just felt we should try and go privately but don't know where to start. I feel so let down by the NHS, I know it's not their fault and it's all to do with funding but is this really the best we can offer our young people?

Cuts to funding and a massive surge in demand because it's acceptable to feel stressed, anxious, depressed, mental health problem.

Not saying it's right but there are just too many people that need help now.

It's an underfunded shambles. I gave up. Less hassle to be depressed.
I had a huge wait for a trainee counsellor who said I should take "relaxing baths". I pointed out in a working lone parent so that wasn't likely to happen. Decided to not waste my time after than and cancelled, and told them why.

I did see an amazing private counsellor for a few weeks and I felt more human again, but at £45 a session it ripped through my savings. I can't afford to do it again.

"most nurses, doctors and staff, who are lovely ..."

This is actually not my experience in secondary and tertiary mental health services at all. Inpatients are treated worse than animals in many wards. Lack of funding is a convenient excuse but the biggest lack is in staff humanity.

I'm not even sure it's a lack of funding. Wellbeing practitioners are paid 26k a year training out of one year training simply to offer someone computerised CBT with 6 half hour phone calls to see if they're actually completing it. My best friend is currently in training and I can't quite believe it and even she is like yep it's a fairly easy job after training 4 half hour phone calls and one 45minute assessment a day. I'm not saying it's a huge salary but for someone who actually doing the job to admit it's easy and well paid for what it is..
The path to other talking therapies is almost impossible, the post grad qualifications cost thousands, not even covered by the postgrad loan offered by the government.
So you're either offered CBT (and likely have it computer based) or left to wallow due to the lack of other trained staff. I used to really impressed but lately I'm feeling very jaded about the whole thing.

In terms of ED services, you're unlikely to be fast tracked for treatment unless you're physically at danger. Sadly this means that a lot of people, who have the insight to know that they need help, have to get worse before they can get better. Many ED patients are highly intelligent and it's easy for them to realise that their BMI needs to be

@Showandtell1

What medication do you need where you need an ecg? Im on antipsychotics and mood stabilizers and didnt need an eccg

You should be getting an ECG and bloods at the start of treatment and at least annually, as well as weight, when on antipsychotics doi - psychiatrist

I found it really hard to get any form of help in any way. I'm just wrong for it all, not suicidal, find it very hard to put it into words why I need some help. I eventually got the maximum available in the area where I was, 6 sessions of an hour each. Most of this was spent trying to talk about things then being gently told not to go too far into an issue, too deep, as the sessions were so limited. There was a little speech every week about how not to depend on her or the services of the borough as once its up its up. I have no idea what even it was, therapy? counselling? Once I moved I tried again to see if I could get any help, even just info, to be told they don't really deal with my kind of thing. Depression, anxiety, I suppose, but also eating issues. But the wrong kind, overeating or emotional eating or binge eating just addiction but it isn't a real thing. Although my health would improve immensely if I could do something about it all, saving the NHS a great deal of time with my physical disabilities.

Since April I haven't left my house, I see one person a week when a family member drops off some shopping. I speak 2 or 3 sentences a week total. There isn't anything, I don't know of any mental health help. My physical health has deteriorated so much in lockdown and it all keeps looping round mental and physical health. There doesn't seem to be any service or just anything checking on vulnerable disabled people.

Goldilocks, I am so sorry. I hate the lack of support. Staff seem so demotivated that they don't help at all.

I would love it if CBT really worked for me. Can the people who have had success with CBT say a bit more, please? How much time do you spend writing? Is it forever?

Hello all, I'm always surprised to come back to this thread and see so many thoughtful and sincere comments, whether they're in agreement or not. I think this is a really important discussion to hear different perspectives about, so I'm glad that people are sharing their own experiences :)

A little update and slight whinge, I suppose, if anyone's at all interested I am inching along towards getting medication for ADHD! The main hold ups have been from a fall-through of communication on the GP's part, which is more understandable given present circumstances, but no less frustrating.

I had all requisite tests carried out at the start of November, and while I'm glad it's over and done the results have still to be passed over to the private centre.

They can't contact me for a follow up appointment until the results are there, and despite emailing the GP, (I'm beginning to find chasing them up over the phone increasingly difficult and anxiety-inducing, as each time I need to bare my soul and talk about my increasing self-destructive behaviour in order to prod them into action), there has been no response.

I had my diagnostic appointment back in August. Four months on, and I'm still struggling along with no medication or treatment plan. I've been off on the sick for three months and the stress of coming to an ultimatum is only making me feel worse.

Suffice to say, I'm greatly disappointed that not even handing over the money for private treatment is enough to stop the (overworked) NHS from dragging their heels and forcing me to jump through additional hoops and chase them up frequently (which, as I'm sure other people with ADHD know, is especially difficult to maintain). I was hoping I could enter 2021 with additional help and light at the end of the tunnel, but I guess it isn't to be for now.

I hope you're all doing well, and are having a happy festive season with your loved ones. Thank you for giving me this space to vent

Mental health services (like most health services in the UK) are woefully under funded. Chronic shortage of staff, less beds etc all are major issues. So it’s hard to be as responsive as the services need to be. Part of the problem is the majority of people don’t want to pay the actual cost of healthcare as they don’t want to pay more taxes etc

Mental health is extremely underfunded. And you wouldn't believe the amount of people that get access to help and don't attend appointments.

This situation is such a shame. And it hasn't always been this way. 20-30 years ago it was so much better. My brother and I had superb and thorough MH input at that time as young adults, and it has payed dividends in our longterm outcomes. Now I'm seeing young people get shoddy and patchy care and it's devastating. Self help is very important; of course it is, but part of self help is knowing that you need to access treatment and services, and when that isn't available, what are people supposed to do?! Can't believe the extent of the backwards slide!

It's horrible isn't it, asking for help and not getting it. Hard to ask for help assertively when you're not mentally well.

My husband took his own life while under the Mh team - he had schizophrenia + bipolar and had headed into a psychotic episode. I rang them asking to help him and they just kept saying he'd be OK in a few days. He killed himself on the Sunday after I'd rang them on the previous Friday. He'll probably be better after the weekend they said.

I'm now attempting to access the same services myself - after an initial video link meeting they told me I'm doing fine and just need to look for voluntary work in spite of having become a recluse. I've told them I spend all waking hours in a state of fear, heart thumping out of the chest. I've done a lot for my physical health in an attempt to feel better, but I 've slipped back into barely being able to leave the house, started smoking again.

Re mentions of suicide - was told they weren't keen on medicating if I am because I may abuse the medication, so you have to a bit of back-tracking there.

It does feel quite hopeless.

Sadly some people take no responsibility for their mental health. They miss appointments or community support sessions or phone consultations. Many decline group therapy as they don’t like groups. Then it goes on their record they’ve not engaged. So they get even less support. Anxiety can be a barrier to accepting support but staff have no time to chase people who don’t attend or who don’t engage.

Or some people don't engage because of their mental ill health. Why would you engage if you believe mental health staff are part of a conspiracy against you? Or that you're fine and don't need any help? Or you're given morning appointments even though the medication you're on means you struggle to get up in time to make it to them?

And sometimes there just is nobody there to help, even when you're in crisis.

geidiI'm so sorry that your husband was so badly let down and now you're struggling too. I can't believe you have no medication when you're constantly so anxious!

Thank you bingo, everything's looking a bit brighter today - I've been assigned a case-worker after ringing the MH services in a bit of a panicked state yesterday and she did a home visit today, and is going to make an appointment with the psychiatrist for me. So cautiously optimistic.

geidi that is such good news. We're all rooting for you.

The waiting list for therapy where I work is around 3 years now for individual therapies. It's terrible. Soul destroying having to tell that to patients (let alone being one of the patients waiting that eternity for therapy).

Would also say that I am as demoralised by the approx 30% of appts in the service that are missed

Reading through this as I was searching for a similar post on google and came across this! I absolutely agree community care is so bad… I never worked in old hospitals but my MIL did… she said they were told to get up and out and placed in random local towns they didn’t know.. she said many killed themselves.. she left nursing once the big hospitals closed .. she always said ‘asylum means a place of safety and respite, it’s not a scary place’ atleast they had proper care, support and activities there… we need more therapeutic beds

@Spidey66

Reading through this as I was searching for a similar post on google and came across this! I absolutely agree community care is so bad… I never worked in old hospitals but my MIL did… she said they were told to get up and out and placed in random local towns they didn’t know.. she said many killed themselves.. she left nursing once the big hospitals closed .. she always said ‘asylum means a place of safety and respite, it’s not a scary place’ atleast they had proper care, support and activities there… we need more therapeutic beds