Mental health support in the UK

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Posting here for traffic, sorry.

DH is having a mental health crisis. Huge mood swings but majority of the time very low, hating himself, incredibly negative and angry at the world and how unfair life is. Repeatedly overwhelmed by simple tasks, including parenting.

We live outside the UK. Help is available here but it's not easy: you have a long list of psychiatrists and psychotherapists and you have to basically keep calling them all until you can get a spot. He has found a therapist who will treat him in English but he hates his psychiatrist and looking for a new one is "too difficult".

He is convinced that the only answer is to move back to the UK and that he can get help there.

I know on one hand it would be easier as your GP would refer you and then it's just a question of waiting. But, assuming he can register with a GP & then actually get an appointment with them, how long are we talking?

My AIBU - AIBU to think he won't get better mental health support in the UK?

What would it be like privately, do you know think?

In terms of time and money!

Anywhere between 80-200 pounds per hour in my experience privately. That’s without any assessments/ inpatient care etc

Mental health care here is awful and the only way is to go private.

Im in SE England by the way.

We have a huge mental health crisis there is zero help until basically Suicidal and then you have to wait still

I think I'm the exception here but I've had outstanding care from my local mental health services. I had a breakdown a few years ago and at every part of my care I was well supported by every person I met.

The problem is the service are fire fighting and can only seem to cope with people in crisis, the long term prevention work and keep people well once the crisis has passed is where there are huge gaps and discrepancies in provision.

On nhs? If they put you on waiting list you can be waiting literally years.

more likely you will be offered online cbt course and maybe anti depressants

Unless you can fund MH support/therapy privately, I would stay away. It's abysmally awful in the UK these days.

You can refer yourself for counselling or CBT. Wait of only a few months for a face to face session in my area (rather surprising but good news).
No idea how many sessions you get though.

For private treatment you could be seen very quickly but there are also a lot of psychiatrists and/or psychologists who offer online services from the UK. I know my psychiatrist has about 30% of his clients from overseas. His charge out rate is pretty high though (£600). A psychologist would be cheaper but it depends what kind of intervention your DH needs.

Hello.

I am a nurse and work within MH services (nhs) within the UK. Waiting times largely depend on the area, clients who come into my secondary community service have an assessment with a triage team then if they come to us, they get allocated a worker straight away. We are no longer allowed to have waiting lists. Waiting years does not happen and I have never ever seen this happen. (With the exception of autism/adhd assessments and some children’s services) You can self refer for talking therapies if that is what is needed, which is normally time limited (isn’t appropriate for everyone) In that instance they would be stepped up for more intensive support.
I live and work in the north. This may differ down south.

Waiting years does not happen and I have never ever seen this happen.

lol - only, it isn't really funny. It's absolutely not my experience and I frankly don't believe a word of that. Not after what my family has been through.

You don’t believe that I’ve never had a patient wait years? Interesting.

In my experience that was crap. The therapy was via text messages..

They've promised me this is f2f. Hope so, rather counting on it -(

It depends on whether you are talking about NHS or private provision.

In my experience, NHS will not help you unless you are experiencing acute symptoms. They just don’t have the resources. I struggled to get help when I couldn’t work, wasn't functioning at home and was quite frankly a danger to myself and others. It felt at times that because I could talk in a coherent sentence I was deemed well enough to do without help. Other people on here have had better experiences, but these do seem to be the minority and it is really a postcode lottery.

It’s really easy to get private appointments. My mental health condition is covered by the insurance I get through my employer, but self-pay it’s about £200 for my psychiatrist and £150 per session for my psychotherapist. The latter is on the more expensive side. Wait time depends on the psychiatrist but you should be able to get an appointment within two weeks if not much sooner.

The NHS is a residency based scheme, not a citizenship based schemed. He would need to fully return to the UK to register.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/using-the-nhs-when-you-return-to-live-in-the-uk

From the experience of my friends and family, it’s fairly easy to get referred for CBT on the NHS, but once you get it, the quality and continuity of care is pretty poor.

Every other person in the Uk seems to have MH issues too and services are woefully inadequate so if he can access services where you are why would you want to come here? What country do you live in ?

Private:

Therapist 60- upwards an hour. Generally no problem accessing.

Psychiatrist: I think we paid about 200 an hour (medical insurance). About a week.

NHS:

My DD was referred in 2017 and was never assessed or seen.
We chased by phone and email but never got anything.

I was referred in 2016 and the referral was rejected as the NHS does not provide the type of therapy I need.

I went private.

My DS was referred in 2022 and got six sessions. He had tried to kill himself.

The GP was happy to take over private psychiatric prescriptions.

Yeah, it does read like that doesn't it.

I was in a life changing accident in 2014 and was referred for therapy to help deal with ongoing pain.

My DD developed a serious autoimmune disease in 2016 and was referred for therapy to deal with the fatigue aspects of it. Pack g etc.

DS was lockdown issues. He was living on his own, first year at uni and just not seeing anyone.

Which country are you in?

Unless you can afford to pay private tbh there is practically no mental health help here

What an horrendous comment. The family could have a genetic mental health disorder or could have collectively experienced an extremely traumatic event.