Christmas IS going to be cancelled - last minute.

[Elephant4]

Isn't it?

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/18/boris-johnson-calls-crisis-meeting-to-discuss-response-to-new-covid-strain

They're panicking now.

I am genuinely amazed that you have the audacity to spout #bekind after your comments to a suicidal poster? That shit flows both ways.

[quote IndecentFeminist]@GetOffYourHighHorse my mother nearly topped herself over the summer due to the shitshow that is our local (tier 1) NHS mental health support service. Gathered her pills and was then put on a psych ward for 6 wks.

So, for all your sanctimonious BS about making a phone call to cure suicidal thoughts, the support isn't there. Covid isn't the only thing killing people.[/quote]
I attempted suicide a few years ago. I was pissed that I had survived and when they asked me at the hospital if I was going to do it again I told them straight that yes I would do it again and next time I would make sure I didn't fail. I then told them in great detail how I was going to kill myself and how I was going to make sure I didn't fail.

They then told my DP to 'take her home and keep her away from sharp objects and hide all medication'. I told them I was going to jump in front of a train so not sure how hiding sharp objects and medicines would have helped. My DP went ballistic and then they suggested that hospitalizing me was a bit of an overeaction for someone who was simply a bit upset .

I was eventually hospitalized but my family said it was like pulling teeth trying to get anyone to listen to them and take them seriously.

Mental health support is shit in the UK at the best of times. Calling a GP can only do so much.

Look, can we try to #BeKind please

It's always the hypocrites that spout this!!

Oh well all of you saying boris just wants to be liked were WRONG

He just apparently broke the hearts of a huge part of the country .

The #bekind stuff is bollocks used by people who are often the last ones to actually be kind.

If somebody is suicidal then obviously they are going to need support and if that means seeing their family then that is what there are exemptions in place for.

What is really a bad idea is posting a sweeping statement on MN (and especially not in AIBU) saying that they are going to see their family regardless of the rules as that's just going to get people's back up and their replies aren't going to be good for the poster's mental health.

Sometimes some posters on MN seem like the modern day equivalent of the dicks who I'd sometimes see when attending a potential suicide who stood there shouting 'jump' to the individual involved.

Well, I am now in tears.

So much for my earlier comment about visiting my mum. I cannot realistically do it in one day, and besides, Wales is closed. Just listening to Nicola (I'm in Central Scotland) and it is clear I cannot travel outside Scotland either.

An elderly lady being alone on Christmas Day. Fuck, fuck, fuck!

I am speechless and cannot even phone mum to discuss, I am too upset to speak.

Kids could travel down from North Scotland and back in a day on Christmas Day to see us (7 hours round trip), so I suppose that is a compromise...

Yup, my mum was told by the GP that no-one would see her in person, a&e would turn her away and that paramedics wouldn't enter the house. Bear in mind we are on the Isle of Wight, hardly run off our feet with covid.

My 75 yr old was told to just 'stay awake', in order to keep her safe. It took me two days of solid phone calls (while he watched her) to finally get through to someone who could help, a suicide prevention charity. They came and saw her, sat and listened to her, then made some calls and kicked some arse. Suddenly the crisis team responses, and a bed became available.

Ironic of course that the initial.lockdown caused the problem, and the cause of the eventual breakdown was our Gp prescribing antidepressants over the phone with no follow up, and then changing them 5 times (yes, 5 times) in under 3 wks. She ended up catheterised and on suicide watch.

So no, more often than not just phoning a GP or chatting to Samaritans won't help, and we would do well to take people's word as expert on their own situation.

Phone a GP 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 A friend is wondering if she can travel to her FILs funeral just after Christmas. He phoned his GP who would only speak to him over the phone and misdiagnosed his perforated bowel as a UTI. Bit like my dad who ended up with septic arthritis because his GP wouldn't sed him in person and diagnosed his UTI as an osteo arthritis flare up.

@countrygirl99... and my mum. Who had “just a UTI” and was dead, three days later.

@louisejxxx

We will still go to my mum and dad’s regardless but they are our childcare bubble - there won’t be any difference to us going round on 25th December, like they will be on 4th Jan when I’m back at work and kids have a teacher training day at school.

But with childcare bubbles you are not supposed to be inside with the other adults, it's childcare for when you absolutely need it, not an excuse to see the grandparents! 🤦🏻‍♀️

@JacobReesMogadishu

I’m a bit worried about this new strain.

They’ll never contain it. They couldn’t contain the first strain and this one is more transmissible. It will have left Kent/London already.

I know they say the vaccine will still help but they have to redo the flu vaccine every year for each strain so it makes sense that actually they need a new vaccine for this.

No, they don't need a new vaccine for this new variant, it's not like the flu strains. But even if they did, it's a relatively simple thing to change, it's not like starting over.

WE can largely contain it if we stop mixing

I think it’s fine to see your elderly mum or one or two family members, particularly if you have all been isolating.

These measures are directed at those who play fast and lose with common sense and are planning big shindigs. On a concurrent thread there was a poster griping that their “buffet for 16” was off. That made me as who in their right mind would organise that at this time.

WE can largely contain it if we stop mixing

Problem is we won’t stop mixing will we? Not only will there be a lot of people ignoring the rules there is so much allowed and indeed unavoidable mixing.

Work, commuting, schools will reopen, students will go back to university.

Unless we do what China did and pretty much barricade people in their houses it will spread. Obviously we won’t do that. So will have to hope the govt don’t fuck up the vaccination roll out too much.

At current numbers: 66,000/60,000,000 x 100 = 0.11%. I would venture the actions since March have been disproportionate and we do not know yet the extra deaths from suicide, cancer, heart disease, etc, which have vicariously resulted. Notwithstanding the broken businesses and broken lives quite apart from the increased abuse.

Who runs this country? Boris Johnson or Sir Simon Stevens? Serious question and it may haunt us for decades to come.

ketosavedmylife that’s terrible but can you not form a bubble with your mum?

Who runs this country?

A circus full of clowns.

@RosesAndHellebores but whilst Covid rages we can't treat those illnesses due to strain on the NHS. Just this week dad has had a pacemaker battery change cancelled and an excision of a melanoma cancelled too. All due to Covid.

Its not about cases, its about resources. Our hospital has opened extra makeshift intensive care units in old wards and an outpatient waiting area. Goodness knows where it goes from here.

Scotland has announced a 3 week tier 4 (basically lock down) and kids not back at school until the 18th earliest (re-examined is the phrase used).
Christmas being cancelled is the least of my worries going back to working full time with a toddler at home for 6 weeks is!

whilst Covid rages we can't treat those illnesses due to strain on the NHS

Dp having had nearly 5 years experience at the mercy of the NHS and before this I had 7 years in constant agonising pain and unable to walk without a Zimmer frame when they failed to notice I had a slipped disc.
I say failed to notice as the consultant I had would have failed to notice that I was a middle aged woman if I had put on a deep voice and called myself Ivan as he never once glanced in my direction let alone come within 15 feet of me.

I just think now they have an excuse to not do anything
I can’t see any change.

If wewant anything done then we now go private.
We always try the GP first in the hope they can do something but usually there are set platitudes and you come away thinking why did I waste my time.
We don’t have the money to really pay for private medical expenses but if it is a choice we feel we need to make.

Dp spent 6 months trying to convince a series of doctors that he had bowel cancer and only when he could barely walk they sent him to A&E
I went private and got diagnosed within 15 minutes for something that had remained a mystery to the NHS for 7 years.

The NHS waste so much money

@Oliversmumsarmy I'm so sorry to hear your story and I can understand why this would cause you to loose faith in the NHS.

I have to say though that my dads experience has been different- throughout his heart issues and bladder cancer followed by this melanoma he has received timely and excellent care.

The procedures which were cancelled had already been booked in and have been cancelled due to an outbreak of Covid on the heart ward (so only life saving procedures can be carried out in their now limited operating space and ward), and Covid pressures in the case of the melanoma.

we do not know yet the extra deaths from suicide

Yes we do. None. The suicide figures for Q1 and Q3 were almost identical to the same quarters in 2019. The figures for Q2 were well down on 2019.

Yes we do. None. The suicide figures for Q1 and Q3 were almost identical to the same quarters in 2019. The figures for Q2 were well down on 2019.

It’s not an immediate thing. The seeds are being sown now, but the figures won’t be clear for a long time to come,

Those deaths are subject to an inquest anyway, no? Automatically? And therefore the figures would not be even available yet.

It’s not an immediate thing. The seeds are being sown now, but the figures won’t be clear for a long time to come,

Possibly but we don't know. I keep coming across people saying that the suicide rate this year has gone through the roof due to the lockdowns. That simply isn't true.

Those deaths are subject to an inquest anyway, no?

The figures for 2020 are provisional and will probably go up a little. However, the evidence from previous years is that the increase is likely to be small - less than 2.5%. The figures for Q1-Q3 2020 show that suicides are down by around 12%. It is highly unlikely that the final figure for Q1-Q3 will show an increase compared to last year, let alone a big increase. We can say with confidence that there have been no additional deaths from suicide in the first three quarters of 2020.