To ask if you can take someone to a therapist?

[Bluenoseday]

NCed for this as details are outing.

DH needs mental health support. He is very anxious, having massive panic attacks, and also says he has been hearing voices. He has had some strange hallucinations and very dark thoughts. His parent has just died. He is unable to work and is, understandably, feeling depressed and desperate.

The GP has prescribed beta blockers and referred dh to the mental health crisis team. But that was 2 weeks ago and we’ve heard nothing. He has been on an nhs waiting list for therapy for 6 months and I don’t see that going anywhere soon.

obviously I am trying to support dh but I think he needs some external support too. He feels too overwhelmed to find a private therapist himself. Would it work for me to find a few, interview them, and then take him to meet them? Would therapists accept this? Or is it an important part of the process that he reaches out himself?

When I needed to be able to discuss my father's care with GP, I wrote a letter from him, giving name, date of birth and probably NHS number saying he wished them to discuss his treatment with me (name, dob, NHS no), got him to sign it, and took it to the surgery. Once it was on their records they were happy to discuss anything with me.

Did crisis helpline mean that they can't chase up referrals? Did you mention that he'd already been seen by his GP? Would it be worth ringing them again, without mentioning he's already seen the GP? If they ask you direct, tell them he's got a lot worse since seeing the GP.

Meanwhile, Samaritans may be a bit of a lifeline while you're trying to sort something out. I once rang them every day for a fortnight.

Please either urgently contact the GP again, or take him to A & E if he is really bad. I was in a very similar situation with my dh. He suddenly deteriorated after exhibiting similar symptoms to your dh and began behaving very strangely. I was frightened for both him and myself. I phoned the GP who didn't want to know and told me to call an ambulance. The ambulance staff were amazing and took him to hospital to be assessed. They are quite used to this at A & E and took him and me in a little room and questioned him. They then admitted him to their mental health unit for a few days and then he went into a kind of halfway "therapy" house. We then had the crisis team visit almost every day for 3 months. They were wonderful people who knew exactly how to deal with him and were of enormous help to me too. After that he was treated by the psychosis team and is now under the local community mental health team. I had no experience of mental illness before and would never have thought to phone for an ambulance /contact the crisis team. I wouldn't bother trying to contact a private therapist yourself, he needs the quick intervention from the crisis team or hospital as, at this stage, he may need urgent medication. Therapy might come later after he's been assessed by the professionals as to exactly what type of therapy he needs. Please ring the GP again and tell them how bad he is.

Does he want help?
If not there will be nothing happening unless he's a danger to himself or others in which case you can call 999

At our surgery we can sign a form to say we give permission for someone else to have access to our medical situation, to talk on our behalf. My husband and I have signed for each other and our sons to have access to our records and speak to our GPs. Would your husband be willing to give permission for you to do this? (Sorry if this has been mentioned - haven't had time to read all through.) Good luck, OP.

@Bluenoseday google your local MH trust and go on their website - they should have the number for their helpline, there should be a banner somewhere on the main page saying something along the lines of “do you need help immediately?”
you or your husband can contact them for some immediate help/ask them how to self refer. You don’t need a GP referral, as next of kin you can raise your concerns directly.

The name of the team you used to be able to self refer to was “access and assessment team” but this may have changed recently

Here is the example of my local MH trust’s website - “I need urgent help”

And yes you can just walk into A&E/call ambulance as PP said - most A&Es also have a psych liaison practitioner

Contact the crisis helpline again and ask how you can self refer to the access and assessment team - don’t ask about the GP referral itself.

my knowledge may be a bit out of date but they should be able to direct you

If you are going to take the private route please find a psychiatrist rather than a therapist. Hearing voices is a psychiatric symptom. Therapists have varying qualifications and are unlikely to have training/experience at that level

Yes contact a therapist and get him someone fast.

Is he exercising outdoors? Needs to do that asap. With you.

A daughter's friend heard voices and is now ok. Lots of exercise. Lots. With you. Or a dog.

Take him to A&E, it’s a mental health crisis. He needs urgent help.