To think it’s bad I can’t see my mental health team in person

[User4647]

I’ve not been seen in person since February despite having had a crisis in April. Other people under the same team have been in to see their care coordinators and psychiatrists. One person I know has even been in simple to read their notes.

Anyone else in a Similar position?

Same here,telephone appointments every week for 60 minutes at a time. Have 6 free sessions . Feel very lucky and privileged as they are hard to come by . Helping a great deal as I had suicidal thoughts back in April.

Glad that your support is helping you.

What sort of care have you had in this time? Phone, Zoom?
They obviously won't be able to tell you about the care other people have been receiving, but have you specifically asked if you can have a face to face meeting?

I’ve had phone. I have asked yes and have been told no.

Its difficult. I have seen mine face to face once since March and thats only because I had a newborn and I wasn't doing well at all. Otherwise it has been phone calls which I do find helpful but face to face is better.
However its really risky having them in and out of numerous houses I guess and they're trying to reduce that.

I get that but don’t really fully understand who they are seeing and who they aren’t.

Same here but for my daughter. She's autistic so finds it hard to zoom call. No face to face or therapy available at all. She's been in a serious mental health crisis since early June now and still hasn't seen anyone face to face. It's been established last week after a phone assessment that she needs medicating. But the medics won't prescribe till they see her, but due to COVID they cannot see her. Going round in circles. She's eleven btw. Suicidal at eleven and not a shred of help can be put in place till she actually harms herself 😢

blissfulllife That’s awful it’s hard enough for me as an adult can’t imagine how difficult it is for a child. Hope they offer her some help soon.

I started my therapy in February seen my therapist face to face to start EDMR which was really helping, then with lockdown it was phone calls. A few weeks later it was video calls, I'd get a txt with a link to an NHS website a bit like zoom. It was still helpful but not as good as face to face.
We agreed to stop sessions and wait 6 months to get referred again. She put in my notes that due to covid the treatment was effected.
I had my therapy with the NHS but I know my therapist works private also and can do face to face appointments. Looks like the NHS don't want to do that just yet in my area.

I work in mental health services and the issue is that we have to adhere to social distancing guidelines so we simply can’t for all the staff in buildings as they were prior to COVID. We’ve been asked to prioritise those who need face to face appointments, and then staff are being allocated certain days when they can work from a base, and the remainder of time will be working from home and using a digital platform to conduct appointments.