Why are mental health services in the UK so lacking?

[HealthConcerns24]

Seriously? I did an an e - consult and then called my GP on Monday as I am really depressed. Not having suicidal thoughts but definitely having so intrusive thoughts that when I had previously led that way.

Am ok keeping myself safe as I know all the support out there having been here before but my god. 2 weeks before I can even have a phone call with my GP as it’s not “urgent” as I’m not suicidal. Would be closer to 5 weeks for a face to face appointment.

Over 2 years ago I saw a mental health practitioner through my GP surgery who couldn’t help me fully other than antidepressants which helped and once I felt better I weaned off them. She also referred me for therapy to due historic trauma which could have been affecting how I was feeling but was told it was a very long wait and I still haven’t heard a thing.

Now I’m bad again and I feel like I’m hitting my head on a brick wall trying to get help.

I can’t go on like this. Crying all the
time or feeling on the edge of crying. Not sleeping. Irritable and angry. Struggling at work and affecting my home life. It’s really no way to have to live!

Do people really have to be at the stage of wanting to kill themselves before someone will really listen and help?

I think in general money is focused on needs done right now. So for mental health care it’s for folk who need to be inpatients as at risk. Wait lists for so many things are really long until you tip over into the urgent category.

@Sillygrudge thank you for checking in.

It kind of came to a head and had no choice but to speak to my husband yesterday. Without going into specifics work was horrific Thursday and Friday and I was sent home as I had a bit of a breakdown in my annual one to one with my boss which resulted in an emergency appointment at my own GP that same day.

The request was called through by my own boss, but I had to give consent on the phone that she could speak to them about me. She was worried I was going into a mental health crisis.

Was in there for almost an hour for a 15 min slot and felt terrible for those that were then running late behind me.

Long-shot is I’m off sick from work. Have been told to take a minimum of 2 weeks but likely to need more. Been put back on Citalopram and have been referred again to therapy services.

I don’t think I realised quite how bad I am to be honest but feels a bit better to have spoken out

How have you been doing @HealthConcerns24 ?

I’m still awaiting a call back from the crisis team. It’s almost a year ago since I first spoke to them! Thankfully I’m now in a much better place thanks to a very high dose of antidepressants but it’s certainly put me off contacting them again should I ever go back to how I was this time last year which was that depressed I’d planned on taking my own life.

It's about perception and will, not so much about lack of money.

There is plenty money in the UK, we're still the 6th or 7th largest economy on the planet. It's a conscious choice to invest next to none of that wealth in Mental Health provision, and that is driven by antipathy, ignorance, and a degree of old-fashioned thinking that still believes mental ill-health is largely self-induced, and all the ill need to do is pull their socks up.

The public info tells us Cancer affects between 1 in 2 and 1 in 3 of us. Mental illness affects 1 in 3 to 1 in 4, so why the enormous discrepancy in resources, and the enormous discrepancy in how both are viewed and tackled?

Cancer has become a political buzzword. It's something politicians can cite as a metric on which they can be judged. Improve Cancer "numbers" and they are seen to be doing something right.

It isn't simply about the fact Cancer is seen as something which kills people and therefore takes priority, because if you maintain that line then all you are doing is betraying the fact you know and understand very little about how mental illness erodes and incapacitates humans, and how longer-term it often is every bit as life-shortening as "physical" illness.

In short, the lack of provision is about a lack of concern, expediency, and a still pig-headed refusal to grasp that mentally unwell people can not simply "think" themselves well.

I’m a mental health nurse in the NHS and I find it so frustrating that there is little we can offer service users. Beds are so short that often an informal admission is as rare as hen’s teeth. As a result, the wards are very very disturbed and often I have to say to patients they would not be helped by them….those that are highly anxious, or vulnerable, would I think be only made worse. Intensive services, providing intensive treatment at home, are bursting at the seams as a result and often are out of capacity.

Im in the West Country now, but when I was in London till 18 months ago, and working in Intensive Services, beds were so thin on the ground we couldn’t even get beds for people detained under the MHA and we had to follow them up in Intensive Services.

im working part time in mental health liaison now, working closely with ED and the wards. A lot of beds in ED are filled with mental health patients waiting for a service elsewhere and are too risky to send home.

I know full well im not offering patients what they need and it makes me so fucking angry.

i also get angry with IAPT who provide CBT. They refuse point blank to work with anyone with suicidal thoughts without referring it on to someone else to explore it further. However, when it is it explored, the majority say ‘yes I have the thoughts but I’m not going to do it because I’ve got small kids/it would upset my parents/im a Muslim, the Koran says it’s wrong/I’ve got some hope things will be better. Suicidal thoughts are a part of depression. It’s the plan or intent that needs to be explored.

pnuemonia, lung cancer and TB often have coughs as a symptom. But most coughs are caused by colds, flu, or at the worst a chest infection. You need to explore the cough before going straight to worst possible scenario!