To report crisis team

[Emmivee]

Hi long time lurker but I think this is my first ever post

So I have bipolar and rang the crisis team like I’ve been told to, as I was really struggling and feeling low and here are two direct quotes from the woman I spoke to:

“Pull yourself together”

“At least you didn’t die when you got covid”

I just said something like “yeah it’s a shame isn’t it” but I’m kinda just in shock, they’ve referred me on to the primary care team whatever that is

Sounds like whoever you spoke to may, themselves, be at the end of their rope. Those comments are hightly innapropriate and completely unprofessional.
Whether you should report formally is another matter OP. Not least because it might involve you in something that won't do you any good. Hopefully you will be contacted by someone whose empathy is still intact. And maybe you could mention it - and see what they say. That would be my approach.

I hope you're feeling better really soon, with or without outside help.

I'm sorry you didn't get the care and service you should expect. She was inappropriate and totally unprofessional.

Yes you should complain. It's dangerous for people to be saying those things to people who are self-referring due to low mood. And shows a total lack of understanding of mental health and a lack of respect to the clients.

I hope the primary care team can help. Reach out again if you need to, hopefully some of the staff are better than others x

I think tone comes into this a lot

I think yes but I’m my experience they won’t take the complaint seriously and she will probably deny it

That's pretty standard for crisis team. A shameful abomination.

If you complain most likely they will cover up and protect them.

Crisis teams are very stretched, under staffed and underfunded.

The person you spoke to sounds like she said some unprofessional things, but she did take action and refer you to primary care. Not knowing the tone she spoke in it’s hard to tell if she was trying to help you feel more positive/grateful/hopeful or if she was being sarcastic.

Why complain when you know services are at breaking point?

Why complain when you know services are at breaking point?

Because they are dealing with people at breaking point, they are the crisis team, there is no place for sarcasm or judgement.

I complained 2 weeks ago directly to the woman I was talking to in the crisis team at the time about her comments, and tone. She was stunned that I called her out on it, clearly people don’t complain enough. Hopefully it meant she treated the next person with more empathy.

Why complain when you know services are at breaking point? - OMFG I can't believe you would ask?! people who ring the crisis team are suicidal and that stupid comment could have pushed someone over the edge!

It's odd that they are referring you to Primary care as I would have thought that if you have been advised to call the Crisis team you are already under the care of the MH team.

I have only been advised to call the Crisis team when I was already under secondary care.

Nobody in health care never mind someone on the end of a Crisis line should be telling someone to "pull yourself together".

I had a first session with a NHS-referred counsellor who, when I got upset, said "Okay, crying about it won't help" (not kindly - annoyed) and when I explained the depth of the issues, said "That's...a lot. God, I don't know what I'm going to do with you..." - again, not jokingly, dead serious. I was already feeling overwhelmed at having finally faced up to the enormity of work I was going to have to put in, so to be told by a 'professional' what sounded like 'you're unfixable' was a bit of a gut punch.

She was clearly a newly-qualified CBT practitioner and well out of her depth, and I was okay enough to be able to recognise she was in the wrong, but had I been in a worse place, she would have left me absolutely reeling having finally taken steps to get help.

I reported her behaviour as part of requesting a different counsellor and CAMHS were horrified - I hope she didn't get in too much trouble, but she obviously wasn't up to more complex patients and that needed rectifying before she did damage with someone who didn't have the capacity to cope with it.

You should report it for the same reason - she may have been at the end of her tether, or out of her depth, etc, but she has an absolutely crucial role at a very delicate point in people's lives. She can't be fucking up like that, and they need to take steps to ensure she doesn't do it again.

Please report her if you are in a place to do so. I lost my mum to suicide at least in part due to the comprehensive failure of her mental health care package. It is unacceptable, it is dangerous, it needs to be reported and acted on to save those even more fragile than you are right now who a callous remark like that might push over the edge. I'm so sorry you were spoken to that way xx

"Sounds like whoever spoke to you may themselves be at the end of their rope."

Why are you making excuses for them @giletrouge. When you're in such a job you leave your problems at the door. Op and other patients suffering with MH have enough of their own stuff going on. If that's her attitude towards m
Mental Health no one is pleading with her to the job.

YANBU to report, Op.

I’ve been exactly where you are pretty much. I have bipolar and I was going through crisis. Rang crisis team and everything I said was dismissed. Unfortunately sometimes you get through to someone who might be having a bad day themselves. Or they’re a dick. I did complain. It didn’t do much. Us crazies are really easy to dismiss. I actually think it’s fucking appalling and I feel really scared that one day I’ll be at that point and I’ll get one of these Nurse Ratched types and that will be it.
The PCT or HTT in my experience are much better. Crisis might as well be binned off, it’s zero help.

If you feel you have been treated wrongly then complain: PALS can support you with this but every mental health trust should make it very clear on their website how to raise concerns and make complaints.

Whether the service is overloaded or not is not your concern. Whether the practitioner you spoke to is dealing with her own issues or not is not your concern.

Crisis may have assessed you as not requiring their service and that your needs are more appropriately met by primary care, but you should have been told about that.

OP, I don't mean that in a bad way at all, and I don't know you but my best friend is bipolar and when she is in a 'crisis', her recollection of events is not very accurate. She has often accused be of saying things when she called me that I have never ever told her.

It is only because she trusts me explicitly that she believes be because in her mi do, she is convinced I told her those things. She also has no recollection of things she's told be, like the time she called at 2am, screaming on the phone that superman was flying over her bed.

Bipolar affects people differently and yours might not be like my friend, but to consider that your recollection might not be exactly how things were actually said.

If you are absolutely certain or better have it recorded, then definitely report it.

Going by a lot of the posts on here it seems that a lot of people don't understand what the crisis centre is for and what they do.

OP didn't talk to a friend or posted on Mumsnet.
OP is not feeling a bit sad.

The crisis centre should be supportive, impartial, professional and helpful to people at crisis point... often people who are suicidal,attempted suicide,are self harming etc. It's a breaking point (emergency)service not a cuppa and "pull yourself together love" situation.

OP please complain , and I hope you do get the help you need.

Because they are dealing with people at breaking point, they are the crisis team

I’m not excusing her behaviour or choice of words, just trying to get across crisis teams are under enormous pressure.

Crisis teams themselves are at breaking point in many areas, from the sheer volume of calls and lack of staff. One member of staff might be taking back to back calls all day. It’s exhausting deciding who needs advice, who needs emergency help, who needs a home visit, who is ‘just a bit low’ and who is genuinely in crisis and at risk. Making those decisions is a huge responsibility and highly stressful. The nurses on the other end of the phone are there to listen (briefly), give advice and take appropriate action (if action is needed).

If you need to pour out your feelings and don’t want advice or action, Samaritans or one of the other free mental health helplines may be more appropriate.

Crisis teams are normally more of an assessment/triage service not an impartial listening ear. In addition to visits they take calls all day, from multiple patients (and sometimes the same patients) with conditions from EUPD to psychosis.

If you’re the 25th person that morning ringing to say you’re struggling she may have been less empathetic with you than with the 1st. In an ideal world crisis teams would be well staffed and well funded. In reality the teams are struggling, trying to do their best with very limited staff and resources.

They told me to get off the phone when k spike to them as they couldn’t do anything. The reason?

After being unable to access a psychiatric appt due to lockdown l eventually paid a private pyschiatrist. I was that desperate😥

They told me to phone him.

I can’t believe the excuses people are making on here for disgusting, unprofessional, uncaring behaviour.
So what if she’s overworked, she should find a different role if she is unable to carry it out with empathy.
Do complain but also speak to the Samaritans if you need to. As volunteers they are less likely to be shit at it as why would they do it if they were evil bitches like the women you spoke to?
Take care of yourself and please ignore the apologists on here.

I think everyone in the public sector is at breaking point. Most of them aren’t rude or unpleasant.

I can’t believe the excuses people are making on here for disgusting, unprofessional, uncaring behaviour. So what if she’s overworked, she should find a different role if she is unable to carry it out with empathy

Do you realise how hard it is to recruit staff to crisis teams? Why do you think the job is so unpopular and crisis teams are constantly advertising for staff?

She might be brilliant and caring most of the time. People aren’t excusing her behaviour towards OP just pointing out she’s human not a robot, and we don’t know what other stress she was under at the time of the call.

Please do complain. I work in a community mental health team. It both angers and frustrated me when I hear that people have been responded to by a crisis team in this way. It increases risk and can undo any progress that a person has made towards reaching out to unfamiliar others for help. Not only that but there is sometimes a general expectation that the crisis team won't do much and the cavalry will be out the next day/Monday, when actually the crisis team should be providing a stand alone service.
All services are stretched it's true, if the practitioner was at the end of their tether it may help make a case for more staff.
I hope you are feeling better now and I'm really sorry you had this experience.

TRIGGER WARNING (if necessary)

I spoke to the crisis team when I was at breaking point and unfortunately it was a Sunday so there was noone else I could contact, the woman was saying “I don’t know what you want me to do” basically and was sarcastic and snappy

I hung up on her and immediately tried to step in front of a train

These are people that are stretched to their limits, but if they are feeling that way should not be at work, as lives are genuinely at risk

I still believe that everyone is human and I don’t blame her in any way for my decisions, I hold no bad blood.

But when I was feeling like noone cared the worst thing I couldve done was speak to someone who didn’t care. The call was my final cry for help, I just wanted someone to care enough to try and stop me.

It’s not a job I could do and I imagine it’s impossible to get the staff, but it doesn’t change the severity of it

I work in a cmht and I say definitely raise this. No matter how tired/annoyed we get there is absolutely no excuse for unprofessional behaviour. That is appalling and I'm sorry to hear that you were treated like this.

Please complain OP.

I never did after a member of the crisis team said I should be greatful I'd had a miscarriage (caused by my exH beating me) as I wouldn't be able to look after "it". You never forget that shit.

I hope you feel better soon