Did the NHS leave me vulnerable?

[NeonToeNails]

My mental health has been in crisis for about two years. I have had a diagnosis of PND and GA. I had tried over the phone talk therapy and didn't find it helpful.

In September I was referred to talking therapy but face to face. I found this really helpful and felt I was making strides in my health.

In December my counsellor left and I was told I would have to start the process again. I received a phone call to find our what my needs were. I told the practitioner on the line that I was suicidal and had a detailed plan. However I had a baby at home so wouldn't follow through. I said the thoughts were constant and that I was scared to be alone because of it. Then I mentioned me and DP were not in a good place. That I took everything he said to heart and this caused issues. That he wasn't supportive etc. I said I couldn't leave as I felt vulnerable and had two young children. The practitioner on the phone said that this sounded like emotional abuse and that it wasn't within the NHS remit. He said he would send me the details of a charity (similar to women's aid but local) this never actually happened. We then said our goodbyes and he hung up. At the time I took it for what he said but I had a very bad time with my mental health last night and was very suicidal. I feel a bit abandoned and like they were just trying to get me off their caseload.

So sorry to hear you are struggling. Can you contact the out of hours crisis team in your area?

Have you tried to speak with women's aid or the organisation they gave you over the phone? It doesn't seem like they wanted you off their case, it's a case of funding and staff. If someone is making active plans to commit suicide when they're in their own, IMO that would be above talking therapy, and need urgent medical intervention.

How're you feeling today OP? Can you contact a crisis team as PP said above?

Sorry am not sure what you mean by your title.
Do you mean vulnerable re your suicidal ideation or the emotional abuse?
I'm not sure where they got emotional abuse from from what you said?

The talking therapy helped me rationalise that they were thoughts and there was stuff I could do to move on from the thoughts. If the counsellor hadn't left I would still be getting weekly sessions so it felt to me at the time it had gone from all to nothing.

Sorry you’re struggling so much. In my experience, the NHS is failing miserably with mental health because of ridiculous underfunding, understaffing and lack of expertise. He should have at least checked you knew where to access help in a crisis and let you know what the next steps were. Offering the charity support should have been in addition to the nhs support - the charity to help with the domestic abuse and the NHS to help with your ongoing mental health issues.

I don’t know what the answer is for for you OP. I’m feeling very similar and have not managed to access any decent NHS help. My gp has been trying to oversee my care the best he can because the referrals to the CMHT have been rejected because I haven’t made a recent attempt.

I hope you find some peace and relief and support from somewhere. It’s hard.

Hello OP, we are really sorry to hear you are feeling this way.
We hope you don't mind, but when these threads are flagged up to us we usually add a link to our Mental Health resources: www.mumsnet.com/webguide/mental-health. You can also go to www.samaritans.org/ or email them on [email protected]. Support from other Mumsnetters is great and we really hope you will be able to take some comfort from your fellow posters, but as other MNers will tell you, it's really a good idea to seek RL help and support as well.
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We are going to move this thread to the Mental Health section shortly.

Is your depression partly situational and partly hormone caused? If so fixing the situational aspect may help - by this it could be talking to women's aid, talking to the council about alternative housing or looking into rentals (or kicking the man out). If it's your hormones look into health supplements and antidepressants to support your system while you recover. It can take over 3 years for your hormones to settle after birth.

I wonder whether it came across to him as your suicidal thoughts being down to relationship issues which his service doesn’t work with hence the signposting (or lack of).
regardless, can you re-refer yourself or ask GP to?
best of luck

I would call them back and say that you want to keep going with the talking therapy, that it has helped and you need more. If required, you can say you will also talk to the charity about your domestic situation which is separate to your therapy needs.

It's tricky in the NHS Talking Therapy as there's strict and low thresholds for risk they're able to hold and risk is sometimes subjective based on the person assessing needs and eligibility. I'd disagree that it's a case of "staff and funding". NHS Talking Therapies have to offer treatment if you're eligible based on risk, presentation of needs and engagement even if that means putting you on a waiting list several months long.
If you're at risk of acting on thoughts e.g. have a plan and you can't be left alone in case you act but the person keeping you from being alone is being unsupportive or abusive I'd consider you potentially too risky to have a)on a waiting list and b)receiving support that isn't designed for complex emotional needs or suicidal ideation support.
If abuse is present and causing depression and anxiety and putting you and the baby at risk then crisis support, domestic abuse support and potentially early help/social care intervention is more appropriate.

You can call in and ask to speak to a supervisor or clinical lead to discuss the decision making and to be reconsidered if you feel that any of the information given or interpreted how's against your beliefs or view of it. They may not overturn the decision but may help you understand how you've ended up not having treatment even though you were before.

Talking therapies also can't be offered while you're in crisis. You need to be stable to engage with them.