On Thursday I went to A&E having self-harmed badly. I received 26 stitches for the cut and then saw the mental health team. I was calm and co-operative the whole time and the mental health team were happy to discharge me. It’s not unusual for me to require medical treatment for self-harming (I’d also been to A&E on Tuesday) and I always get my wounds treated and look after them. I’ve been clear that I’m not suicidal and have no intentions to kill myself when I self-harm. No history of suicide attempts or anything like that on my medical records.
On Friday I went to work as normal. My GP surgery tried to call me during the day at 11am, 2pm and then 5:55pm leaving 2 answerphone messages. I can’t use my phone at work and I didn’t notice these calls until 6pm, I tried to ring the surgery back but it was already closed and I just got the answerphone message signposting me to 111. No option to leave a message so I just forgot about it and figured I’d phone back Monday.
At 22:30 on Friday night I had a single policeman knocking at my door. He asked for me by name and said my GP surgery had sent him round to check on me. He asked to come in but only stayed for about 1 minute, I can’t really remember the interaction as the whole thing was a shock and I was feeling quite scared of what was going to happen. I’ve been having flashbacks from a few years and my last dealings with the police was reporting the assault which I don’t think helped me process what was happening as my mind was all over the place. But I guess he was satisfied I looked okay and happy to leave. I haven’t heard anything since.
Is this normal? I suffer from anxiety and the whole thing left me hugely shaken up when we I remember it. I hate having my private space invaded and I was home alone. I have been to A&E about 20 times over the last year and so my GP surgery had no reason to think I was at risk, I’m always fine afterwards and I had been seen by the mental health team on Thursday and discharged. I hadn’t done a runner from hospitalor anything.
What powers do the police have? Could he have sectioned me? Is this going on my record somewhere? Will it matter that my house was a mess and that I probably was acting nervously? I’m scared now that I’m known to the police that this might happen again. I’m also scared I will go into work on Monday and find out the police have been in or something. I don’t want to stop getting my wounds treated as they’re usually very deep (sometimes needing internal as well as external stitches) but I don’t want to risk having the police involved again. Is it likely to happen again? I don’t know if I should change surgeries or if it’s just as likely to happen with a different GP? If i go to A&E under a false name and name a fake GP surgery is this fraud?