What could be different in mental health care, what helps, and what have you found to be useful reading?

[OwFriggingOw]

First off - this is a thread inspired by another thread - not about another thread.

I am a lecturer who teaches mainly MH nursing students, but also Adult, Child and Learning Disability field nurses about MH, and also occasionally medical students. I have no agenda for this thread bar a genuine desire to listen, share ideas, and have an open discussion about what is helpful / less so. I worked in NHS MH for 13 odd years.

In case anyone links the other threads that inspired this thread - I have been comissioned to edit a book about people's experiences (service users and carers / family / friends) within MH services and with MH issues. NONE OF THE POSTS HERE WILL BE USED IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM FOR THIS BOOK. You have my ABSOLUTE word on that. Similarly, NONE of the posts here will be used in any of my teaching.

My aim in starting this stems from several PM's and several on-thread comments about how this would be useful/ I hope it can be a helpful, supportive and productive meeting place for thoughts and ideas about what people have found helpful with regards MH care / services / support (statutory and non statutory) and what has been less helpful. Most importantly with regards the less helpful - what can be done differently?

And - beacuse I like books - maybe we can share reading ideas :)

Would it be helpful if I shared parts of my long thread from earlier regarding what I see as needed, without any other details from the thread?

No,you cant exactly prove it.
But if you pm me,I will even invite you to meet me if you so wanted.
And you can see my life.

It comes down to trust.
And trust,and trust ,in my book has to be earned.

I think Ow declared her professional interest for purposes of not hiding anything, rather than to invite anyone to trust her.

I think funding is a key issue; the wait for access to services can be too long. I was fortunate in that my GP saw me weekly during the 3 month wait to see a psychiatrist, but other people had no support with similar waits.

There's a lot of good info on this thread, thanks everyone.

But you dont know who she is.

If I talk about who's commissioned the book, I will be very clearly and obviously outed.

I've been very very clear that NONE of this thread will be used, or any of the other posts on other threads. As Frothy says, no one HAS to talk about their own experiences - people can make the choice to trust my word. And as joyful says, this is a public forum. I am fully aware of ethical guidelines on publication, and research (which the book isn't, it's a collection of people's stories, all of which have been voluntarily submitted by a range of individuals - and actually, we have more than enough submissions to full the volume now).

I hope that people have seen enough of my posting on here to realise my intentions are 100% positive and supportive, and once the book is published I am more than happy to out myself on here, name change, and then people will see that NOTHING ON THIS THREAD has been used for it.

I was trying to be open and honest from the outset about my background and current research interests precisely because that felt the most honest and comfortable option - I've not tried to deceive anyone. All we ever have to go on via the internet is people's words. I hope that people can see now, and will see in the future, than this thread is NOT for my own gain bar the very helpful links people have shared, which benefit us all.

it's bizarre that one shit stirring thousand post thread wasn't enough - million you have no idea what sort of contact between users takes place away from your helpful eyes and it's none of your business

You have been clear about the book.
But most of the people on here have MH issues,and by their own admission,can barely cope with RL .I understand that they would like to contribute and be helpful,but these are vulnerable people,and as another has said either on here ,or on yesterdays thread,they do not always trust their own judgement.
As you say,you have more than enough submissions to fill the volume now,so actually their contributions are not even needed by you.

By the way,posting in capital letters does not make you more trustworthy.
SEE,I can do it.means nothing.

I have now warned people,obviously up to them what they do.

I don't remember saying anywhere that I can barely cope with real life. Could we try to stick to a more recovery based approach than the patronising one of decades ago?

I would never, ever go anywhere near any sort of mental health services again after the last 7 months of hell. Yes, I have a written apology, yes, I have the ability to open a window if I want to, yes I have no diagnosis and have taken no drugs since 1st February, but I have no quality of life. And no 'help' apart from someone who is shortly to stop the fortnightly visits.

Maryz is convinced that I am too ill too acknowledge how ill I am yet the 'professionals' do not appear to her. Presumably if they did they would be terrorising me by knocking the door down. I think there should be some sort of enquiry into the police brutality. It horrifies me that someone with genuine mental health problems should face that unnecessary sadism 'for their own safety'. I have not even begun to recover from that experience for my own safety'.

amillion "As you say,you have more than enough submissions to fill the volume now,so actually their contributions are not even needed by you"

Quite. This thread is intended as nothing other than a supportive, resource linking, ideas sharing thread.

People are adults. They can choose to trust my word, or choose not to post on here. I am 100% certain in my own ethical guidelines, and would not publicise anything from any sort of public forum. I'm not sure how many times I can say that.

I'm also happy that I've been honest and clear from the outset, meaning that people can absolutely make an informed choice as to whether to trust my word and post, or choose not to.

I hope people are, and will, find this thread useful. Certainly, the feedback thus far is that it is. I'll dig through my shelves again later and post a few more book links.

not you upward,but some have.
lazyhazyDaisee,what help would you like for today?

please stop derailing threads for your own agenda amillion.

glad to see you here daisee

Thank you joyful - I've reported my own thread to MN to see if they want any confirmation from me about who I am, what I do, who the book's with, what the guidelines are for the book, and why I wouldn't and am not using any of the thread. Maybe that will help.

Thank you also to those who have PM'd or commented on thread about this being useful - it's helpful to hear after feeling as though I have to defend myself repeatedly. It really wasn't intended for another row.

I hope MN doesn's want to pull the thread - as I think there are loads of useful links and resources that people have taken to time to post about.

money that could be spent on counselling and primary help thereby reducing experiences such as your too daisy, you are right

Can we not derail the thread amillion? Everyone is more than aware of Daisee and she has had nothing but support. This is a thread set up about Mental Health services and Issues and i would hate to see it become about just one specific person. It is very hard to post on there and very upsetting for many of us. We don't need you to point out the obvious, thanks.

From a family perspective it took, off and on, 6 of the most harrowing years of my life to get proper treatment for my brother. I think back on it now and still feel physically sick. I never thought he would get well.
The GP was absolutely useless. No support whatsoever to my mother who begged him to at least sign post her. We lost count of the number of times the Police were called, took him to A&E and he did a runner. But the Police's hands are tied, they can only do so much.

I joked at the time that i needed a dictaphone to record the whole sorry saga so we didn't have to repeat everything again and again and again to different people within the Mental Health Team. It was very frustrating and time consuming - you would have thought a record could have been made after the first phone call.

We actually managed to get a psychiatrist to visit. My brother was living with my parents at the time. He refused to leave the room to speak to him so he left. No followup, no support for my parents who are not young and in the best of health. Nothing.

Eventually 6 years on, by some miracle we finally got him to hospital to speak to a doctor. As usual he appeared to be just skating along the radar going along with them. He'd been called 'mildly eccentric' previously. But this time my parents left the room and he told the Doctor they were trying to kill him. Finally he was sectioned. He appealed, represented himself etc Two months on he finally started on the road to recovery and he has been amazing. He has schitzophrenia and takes a tablet for the rest of his life. He sits on a Mental Health panel that meet regularly and is half way through a Psychology degree. A supportive and on the ball CPN has been invaluable to him and he now rarely has to see them. He still has to face the stigma attached to Mental Health in meeting new people and hopefully having a relationship which is so sad, he is a lovely man and deserves a family.

lazyhazyDaisee, I was just wondering how you would feel about starting your own thread so the posts don't get mixed up with the more general ones here?

No more stupid euphemisms like care, treatment, service-user, care plan, etc. They made one attempt to show me a care plan and I crossed out the word care all of the way through and asked them not to patronise me. They didn't bother me with 'care plans' after that.

'Treatment'. I requently asked Dr Clot if and when I would get any treatment. He used to use his temper and say that I was having treatment. He meant drugs. It is my strongly held opinion that drugs should be the very last option after as many weeks as it takes to explore all other options. I agree with Strawberry17 at 08:59 on this.

That does seem incredibly wasteful Daisee - we're only human, but yes, forgetting medication and having to repeat visits isn't an effective use of resources, or particularly helpful for the person receiving the visits.

I think there maybe needs to be more practical help and support in terms of not just ensuring people have decent and livable accomodation when they return home, but also help with finances which in and out of hospital, and with knowledge of grants etc that can help in that area. I know some social services and some MH teams have support workers who are fantastic in this area, and can be great at rebuilding trust sometimes - I wonder if there's any non-NHS support that's available in this area?

I apologise to those people who I have upset about the coping in RL bit.

lazyhazyDaisee,is there any person that you can rely on?