To think there should be a choice in mental health care as well as physical

[User6262]

I was referred for a scan just before lockdown. I was allowed to pick where I. Had this scan. My friend however who is suffering with her mental health didn’t get a choice in which team she was referred to. Aibu to think both physical and mental health care should be treated the same.

Ummm, you had a scan where there were different hospitals offering that? (Lucky)

Your friend who is in mental health crisis has been referred to her local mental health team that cover her patch?

Or is she going for a CT scan? (In which case who cares who do it?)

You do know that mental health services are scarce and for crisis support or local support there isn't a choice of multiple providers or teams that cover each area??

Many people experiencing a mental health crisis are unable to advocate well for themselves.

Even if they could, services are horrendously oversubscribed. The health professionals must triage and prioritise those most in need of/best suited to a particular service.

Yes i had the scan done in the town in work in. As I wouldn’t have had to have taken time off work if I had to have it done where I live as I live 35 minutes away.

I totally agree. But we will have to accept hugely increasing the funding to MH services to allow for this.

I would imagine most people with mental health problems would choose to go to their local team however the choice should be there

I do however mental health is often community based and the boundaries of community NHS services are very rigid. It’s because nothing is centrally run and services are commissioned by the council to whom you pay your council tax for this community care.

Most mental health teams are allocated to GP surgeries, each psychiatrist has a certain number of beds in each hospital, has a team of CPNs and most people requiring CPN input are seen in their homes. To pick and choose where you went would mean less continuity of care in an already underfunded, oversubscribed area.

We have two teams within the same clinical commission group. She was just sent the one in her town.

I wouldn't get a choice about where to be referred to for anything. I'm amazed people are tbh. We have one hospital, the next closest one is over an hour away. For a lot of major things we're referred to the one an hour away anyway as our local one is too small to have all the facilities of the ones in big cities.

I’m usually always offered a choice but then there a few options here.

To be honest...no. Where to even begin. For each ‘patch’ there is one of each service. To go to a different one would be to go out of area. This means that the staff member allocated to you would have to drive out of area to see you. If they had multiple out of area patients it would break down liaison between local services and reduce efficiency as they’d spend half the day driving all over the shop.

You can already ask for a different allocated worker within a service, a second opinion, and if you have a link like a family member in the team solutions for alternative arrangements can be sought.

There are lots of things that need to be improved about mental health provision. This is not high on the list.

She does have a choice - she could pay for it privately.