To be disgusted at MH provision?

[TooBigForMyBoots]

An amazing woman I knew died this weekend. No doubt it will be attributed to suicide, but it wasn't really.

She died because there was no hospital place for her. She suffered BiPolar disorder. Diagnosed 20 years ago. For over 4 weeks she, her GP, family and partner tried to get her into hospital as her condition worsened.

She needed urgent medical care, stabilisation and a meds review. She didn't get it and now she's dead because...

No Fucking Beds.

It's incredibly terrifying at how many young people are seemingly inexplicably sinking; I'm actually pondering how we are living our lives overall and if it's healthy. I wonder if this is happening across Europe or if it's quite specific and endemic in the UK and US.

There's absolutely no help unless you can afford private care. Camhs for us was merely a box ticking exercise to cover their backs. No genuine help whatsoever. We were lucky to be able to afford to pay & there were appointments available. But we had to wait 8 weeks, by which time ds2 was suicidal. Treatment did eventually work & he was able to resume school but he then relapsed the following year. So treatment was reinstated. Now there are no available appointments at our local private clinic for new patients. I feel so sorry for the parents of all those depressed children. As there is no help for them. Gp's can not initiate antidepressants in under 18's. Months of camhs 'care' means there will be many kids & parents in absolutely desperate straits.

My daughter (autistic, ocd, anxiety) took an overdose. Camhs gave her a piece of paper too with some rubbish strategies. She put it in the bin. They said she didn’t need help as she has friends. They discharged us from their ‘care.’

@HallucinationQ I am so very sorry this is your situation. I really am. How frustrating for them to use all that time and expert resource to assess rather than treat!

@Jesko I can totally empathise.

Sadly I live in Wales with our NHS controlled by labour. It's appalling how badly it's run. We need a completely new party who will run the country properly and not just for their own benefit

Having taught under both Labour and Tory governments, in general, prior to 2010, children at the schools I taught in had fewer mental health problems. The curriculum was much broader and more flexible so children seemed far happier to attend, SEND services were better funded, parents weren’t penalised the way they are now for any absences plus there was a huge range of external services to refer children onto for support so things didn’t get to a desperate critical stage so often.

It's terrible.

I have a relation with severe mental health problems, a couple of years ago she was admitted to hospital and given anti depressants. Then when they ran out her GP told her she wouldn't have been taking them as she was breastfeeding so it's not safe for baby.

DS has additional needs and at ten years old was self harming and talking about suicide. When we eventually managed to speak to CAMHS the practitioner said 'well you're his Mum, if you don't know what's causing this then how do you expect me to know?'

This a fantastic, articulate description of NHS mental health care. @JarByTheDoor I salute you x

I could write the same post and I'm a CPN. I totally get why service users get frustrated. It makes me frustrated! I have to push and push for clients and I get so angry that there isn't the resources for them.

It's been woeful for years! My sister took her own life in 2009 a few hours after her psych social worker had visited her at my parents request (she had a 15yr history of relapsing psychosis and many sections). Psych Ss Said she was Ok despite parents saying otherwise. When sectioned she was regularly able to leave the "secure" unit as were other patients who not unusually then took their own lives on the nearby train tracks. The care was appalling and there was no continuity or joined up thinking. It hasn't got any better!

It's heartening in a way to know that it looks the same from the other side of the situation. But it also concerns me that these frustrations are felt so heavily by staff, too — however frustrated I get, my options are limited when extremely unwell so I'll likely continue to be involved with mental health services at least occasionally. But staff do have a choice (though I know career changing isn't easy, and many went into the field because they specifically want to do that job), and I question how long they can be expected to withstand this level of frustration, stress and inability to access the resources needed to do their jobs.

From what I've heard there's already a vicious cycle of understaffing and inability to fill positions that are funded, leading to unsustainable pressures on remaining staff, leading to yet more becoming overwhelmed and fleeing the field (or retraining to become private counsellors or workplace mental health consultants of something).

Obviously I'm glad that staff do notice and care that the service they're providing isn't remotely meeting need (and it's infuriating that in real life, staff will rarely admit that the service is inadequate and instead seem to prefer patients to think they don't merit treatment), but when they can't actually do anything about that, the only real effect is to discourage them — and the more empathetic and conscientious the staff member, the harder it is on them.

I'm a nurse in a Cat B prison

We have at least 4 men who are clinically extremely unwell due to their mental health

They have also committed crime that has led to them being in prison

I have watched 2 of them over the last 3 years become almost catatonic shadows existing in isolation rather than face the tough environment outside that cell door

The other 2 fight / bully/ self harm / are bullied / use unknown substances / survive

All 4 have been accepted for MH beds and are awaiting a place

2 of them at the high security level and have been waiting over a year

It feels so wrong to manage them there without that expert care and support they deserve

to everyone for your contribution and kind words. I am so sorry for everyone dealing with and working in the system. We all deserve better.

I'm so so sorry you've been through this

I used to work for an NHS MH crisis team. It was awful knowing we had 10 clients that needed a hospital bed and only 4 beds available. This was pretty much a daily occurrence. It was dangerous and continues to be. We used to get so much abuse (understandably) from families and carers but our hands were tied - we were equally as angry about the situation as the clients and their friends and loved ones, but nothing we could do.

Crisis teams are over-flowing with clients. There is a huge MH crisis in this country and staff are struggling to manage the risk. There just aren't enough hospital beds and crisi teams can't manage the caseloads of clinets they r staying to manage in the community when a lot should be in hospital.

I'm so sorry for your loss and am sad there will be more.

The NHS can't cope. We need a new government not just to save the NHS, but to boost the wellbeing of the country, reduce the cost of living crisis and get people better supported so they don't reach crisis point.

💐💐

When I was in hospital you stayed until you were well, shortly after I left they would decide on admittance how many days you had for funding and then they discharged you regardless of whether you could cope outside. Many people ended up bouncing back and forth. Thankfully I've never been back but often think what would have happened if I'd been discharged before I was ready.