History of sexual abuse from pre-teen age, self-referred to talking service in the area, a very nice lady rang and talked with me for over an hour, referred me to the NHS service.
A few weeks later another lady from local NHS Mental health team rang and had another long conversation over the phone, over an hour, noted down history and symptoms. It was nice talking to her, seemed lights at the end of tunnel.
Got a letter and form in the post after that call, for an appointment at the mental health center. Form said 'answer the questions and we will go through them in your assessment appointment. '
I turned up on the day, the person doing the assessment was a man... It felt weird, I couldn't really discuss past experiences, sexual abuse, fear of man etc.. the man was professional, his voice was soft, his body language was a bit impatient and disinterested, if my answers got too long he started to shake his leg/foot/shoe.
During the assessment my forms were left on the table untouched. The letter said 'we will discuss these in the assessment' we didn't. I asked, the man said no we didn't need to.
Now 5 weeks passed, I heard nothing. No letter or call. At the end of the meeting he said he would call the following week. Didn't happen. I rang the service twice, was told that i will hear from that person about referral to the woman's service. Nothing happened. I s this normal practice? To have assessment after assessment.. I repeated the same thing several times, is this just bureaucracy? it feels really humiliating having to tell people all the bad experiences again and again,,,