Private mental health services

[Greedybilly]

Has anyone ever paid for any private mental health services - I.e the Priory? Or to see a psychiatrist? (I don't mean just private counselling). If so , did it help? I'm so done with the NHS which is making things worse. Thanks

Anyone? I need advice before I shell out £300 for an initial consultation. Thanks

What are you dealing with/trying to change?

Please remember that there’s a lot of overlap between private and NHS MH services. NHS patients might be seen in private and private patients in NHS depending on the exact treatment needed, and the staff also overlap an awful lot. It depends why you feel like the NHS is ‘making things worse’. If you feel like you need more input or you don’t gel with the team/psychiatrist then fair enough, but don’t expect to get very different opinions as we all work across all the services if that makes sense. I hope that’s not too harsh and that you feel better soon 🙂

@JennieTheZebra thanks - no not harsh at all. Struggled with depression/anxiety for 30 years and last 6 months have been a nightmare getting to see a gp/seeing same person twice/getting conflicting advice/generally just feeling like I get let down by every professional I see.

@Eyesopenwideawake - the above really!

I’m a mental health nurse. What support have you had? Do you currently take antidepressants? Have you been seen by your local IAPT service? Sorry, lots of questions 😊

Do you think you might benefit from seeing a clinical psychologist? They are available on the NHS but the wait times are generally very long and reserved for severe cases.
You can pay for them but they cost quite a bit.
I luckily got mine on the NHS and she was brilliant because I needed 'depth work' due to distinct childhood issues.

@JennieTheZebra I've been taking antidepressants on and off for 30 years. Switched to venlafaxine 8 weeks ago and it's been a near suicidal disaster. Crisis team been round to give me a few pointless leaflets. See a different gp every time . Psychiatric referral knocked back as they said basically it's my hormones.
Just toying with spending money on a conversation with a psychiatrist who might be able to prescribe something different/actually diagnose bi polar or something. I've just been going round in circles for months now. Any pointers v welcome.thsnku

I use private mental health providers including the Priory. If you think that you won’t get conflicting advice and / or less than stellar and consistent care in the private sector, that’s definitely not a certainty.

If you are sacrificing to see a private clinician please choose very wisely because they won’t necessarily provide any better specific care on an outpatient basis than you might get with the same clinician on the NHS. It really is down to the individual practitioner. Many at the Priory are formerly from the NHS or work both.

If you are wanting to go inpatient then it is an entirely different scenario - going private is completely different altogether but it is also not a life saving miraculous cure that isn’t available elsewhere. Just manage your expectations of private inpatient if you are going to sacrifice financially to go there.

@Finestreason thanks for your reply .this is exactly what I'm worrying about - don't want to be spending £300 then £100 thereafter if I'm not going to get anywhere! Can I ask which services you've used? I'm not looking at impatient (unless I remortgage the house). Just thinking of throwing some money at my mental health out if sheer desperation tbh.

I have a private psychiatrist and private psychotherapist.

Through the years I have been both inpatient and outpatient at the Priory. I was recently inpatient at the Priory.

I have also relied heavily on a private GP for mental health support and psychiatric medication management. He has a dedicated mental health nurse that I am supposed to see regularly but I don’t find her helpful at all. His management through the years has been as good as any psychiatrist but I am not particularly complex, just chronic.

But, for example, we recently went to a reasonably well chosen and researched consultant for my DC and they were useless. I think we paid around £500 which was more or less wasted.

Honestly, if you are struggling with MH and £300 is a sacrifice I would really try to be as sure as possible that you are getting a reputable skilled practitioner who will take their time. I have reservations as to whether or not it is worth the stress of the disappointment. I don’t know how to specifically comment, just be aware that it’s not all clear sailing even with access to the so-called “best”. Sometimes private psychiatry is a complete shitshow.

As always, the main upside to the private sector is the quick appointment times and nice facilities but who cares about “nice facilities” when you just want out of the mess that you are in.

Do you know (or can you make an educated guess) as to what caused the anxiety and depression in the first place?

Finding, and dealing with, that root cause is the gold standard in treatment.

The first question I ask is "What do you want to change and how will making this change affect your life?"

@Eyesopenwideawake - well I've had periods of stress and trauma - no abuse or trauma in childhood(and years of counselling which changed nothing).
Mainly though I think it's genetic- lots of depression/anxiety/suicide on one side of family. I tend to do ok if I've got basic levels of chemicals in my brain if that makes sense.

Also, please remember that in psychiatric care diagnosis is a somewhat dark art. Diagnoses can vary dramatically from practitioner to practitioner, even among reputable ones.

Self-education is my best tool. And remembering the Rule of 10 - no one “thing” is going to make 100% difference to my mental health but one action, one medication, one healthy priority can each help 10%.

The psychotherapy is probably right at that 10% helpful mark for me. Exercise is the most helpful at maybe 20%. Eating healthy, sleeping well, reducing sensory and brain input have been also helpful.

Why do you think you have bipolar? What exactly did the referral rejection say? I manage referrals as part of my job and, in theory, if you’ve tried multiple different antidepressants and none have worked then you should see a psychiatrist. The thing is, if you’ve tried all the common antidepressants there’s not that much left, in terms of pure antidepressants, that a psychiatrist could prescribe. It depends on exactly what you’re struggling with. If it’s agitation a low dose antipsychotic might help. If it’s emotion regulation a mood stabiliser might. As @Finestreason said, psychiatric diagnosis is very much a “dark art” and different things help different people.
Out of interest, have you every tried any therapy? Or psychoeducation/skills work?

@Finestreason - it certainly feels like a dark art. Yes I am currently obsessed with meds (because my new ones have altered my mood/ personality so much)I am definitely letting other things I.e exercise/good sleep slip.ironically these bloody pills have ruined my sleep/make me too tired to exercise atm. I totally get the risk of stress/disappointment re going private - I do know there isn't a magic wand sadly. Thanks for your thoughts- v.much appreciated. X

Genetics could be it, although if you were brought up with (one side) of the family being 'worriers' or pessimistic you could have simply learnt that that was the way we think. We learn more in the first 10 years of life than at any other time and all of it is subjective, because we simply don't have the capacity at that age to think rationally/objectively about what we are told, what we overhear, what we see, what we absorb and how we regard ourselves in relation to others.

Have a look at this article about Core Beliefs;

https://www.betterrelationships.org.au/well-being/core-beliefs-self-acceptance/

@JennieTheZebra I have seen a couple of psychiatrist over the years but tbh they didn't massively help (and one was creepy). Current referral been knocked back and waiting time is ages anyway. I think poss bipolar based on the fact that I'm sooo bloody up and down. Said this to gp's over the years but never been taken seriously.
Had loads of counselling- some good, some terrible- I do tend to have a few sessions then find it all rather excruciating/think I'm ok now. I'm just tired of being like this. Thanks for your comments I really do appreciate it.

@Eyesopenwideawake - yes thanks for article- pretty sure it's a combination of nature and nurture. Have discussed with various counsellors over the years.

Whilst therapy and counselling can be very productive they are working with your conscious mind, whereas the issues are situated in your subconscious mind. I, along with my fellow Control System practitioners, offer a free initial consultation to see if remedial hypnosis is right for the client. There's lots of info on my AMA.

How about CBT? You might find it useful if you’ve not found counselling very helpful as it’s more about having skills to manage your mood than talking about your feelings. Plus you could refer yourself for NHS CBT (this is normally called IAPT).

My private psychiatrist has saved my life (quite literally on one occasion). It's expensive especially as he also acts as a therapist too so I see him frequently. Plus he's always available via email. But NHS services are so stretched there is no way I'd have had the same level of consistent support over 5 years than I've had since I started seeing him.

@JennieTheZebra - bit sceptical tbh re cbt - have tried it before.I guess I could try again though - seems to be the thing of the moment (so I guess it must work for someone?). Thanks

I used the Priory and they really helped me. I had no choice as there was no support available via the NHS.

OP I am a GP and have bipolar 1 disorder and I would really recommend seeing a private psychiatrist through the Priory or similar on a semi regular basis (if you are self paying do look for one who is potentially willing to see you on an ad hoc basis after the first assessment rather than being locked in to seeing someone every week or every fortnight if that’s going to be less affordable for you).

I self-pay to see a private psychiatrist and the difference between that and the local NHS mental health services are like night and day. What a lot of people don’t understand about modern NHS outpatient mental health services is that often you’ll end up seeing a social worker or mental health nurse or something rather than a doctor training in psychiatry let alone a consultant psychiatrist. So they don’t actually have the training or qualifications to eg make a diagnosis or alter medication etc.

I think it will be money very well spent OP, it’s transformed my life ever since I made the switch. But sometimes it can take a bit of trial and error to find the right person. Read up on their background, their qualifications, their specialist subjects, and find someone who you think sounds like they will be able to help you. I have personally found it much better to see older psychiatrists who are more experienced but the risk of that is that they retire and then you have to find someone all over again.

I will say that from what you’ve written so far it doesn’t really sound suspicious of bipolar disorder, everyone seems to think they have bipolar these days but often what you’re experiencing is chronic depression with episodes of being less depressed or “normal” in between, rather than having true “high” or “up” periods where you eg don’t sleep because you feel it unnecessary, think you’re are a goddess or whatever and start sleeping around or spending money you don’t have or doing other things that are super out of character.

I would also suggest that you ask to speak to the practice manager at your local GP surgery and let them know that you really want to find a way of seeing the same GP each time or at least most of the time, if there is a certain GP you feel deals better with mental health issues then ask for them, or if you don’t know ask the receptionists who they would recommend booking in with for mental health issues; they will know who is good at dealing with that side of GP and who is not! Sometimes our patients complain to me that they don’t see the same person each time but a lot of the time it’s as simple as they’re not asking to see the same person each time and so reception is automatically just giving them the next available GP appt. I tell my patients to just ask for me when they call but they have to bear in mind that as I work part time they won’t be able to get an appt on certain days of the week when I’m not at work, or if they call up needing a same day emergency appt that also might not be with me if I’m not the emergency doctor that day.