I remember the time mental health services didnt engage with me for 4 months and then said “you need to engage with us.”
Lmao
Discharging myself from mental health services has been the best thing I’ve done for my mental health.
The state of mental health care in this country…
Makes you mad, don’t it.
It’s impossible to get any kind of care in this country. 6 sessions of CBT do not count as care. They’re a pretence at it.
I have complex mental health needs. I have refused point blank to have anything via Zoom or it it involves CBT. This morning, I got an offer of care. They offered me a phone appointment with a CBT therapist.
I am deaf. I have emailed saying this and demanding an appointment that is accessible to me. That means face to face so I can lipread. No response as yet. When I miss this phone call, I’ll be to the back of the queue again. By the time they get their fingers out and offer something appropriate, I’ll be dead.
I mean that literally, by the way. I have a brain tumour that isn’t doing wonders for my lifespan. I’m having radiotherapy to try and shrink it, but there’s no guarantees. This thing could easily kill me within the year and I’m still getting nowhere with any help.
As someone who has dealt with this after A&E – the mental health services don’t offer you help unless you’re actively suicidal. What the actual fuck. If I was still actively suicidal I wouldn’t be trying to seek help. And then they put you on a 6 month waiting list just to get counselling which will only last a few sessions.
So a lot of this is actually reasonably understandable.
Mental health liaison in ED do not accept patients that aren’t medically fit. Meaning if you arrive following an overdose you’ll have to wait for it to be treated medically before the engage with you.
Paracetamol overdoses are the most common (and fucking stupid btw, you’re looking at a multiple days long agonising death if you don’t get treatment in time). The treatment takes several hours. Then you wait to be seen after everyone else. Then you get referred. 12 hours is sadly quite normal.
Our mental health services are actively predatory. They *cause* issues and then just monitor people. The British government did…something.. to David Shayler. Honestly if you guys knew how bad it was your perspective on life would totally change, I guarantee you.
I saw one patient had been in A&E at my hospital for 46 hours the other day. Poor girl
As someone who has spent the last decade working in mental health and also had experience trying to get support from services just prior to the pandemic. It’s absolutely fucked. We give service to those who are in crisis but if it isn’t crisis there is no support there.
We need to stop pasting over the crack and stop wondering why people get to the point of needing hospital.
We need to address the fundamental reasons why people are ending up in services and the broken parts of our society. Nothing will get better until we address this.
At the very least we need to actually invest fucking money in those services. Claps don’t fucking count.
The NHS has no mental healthcare anymore, and I’m speaking as someone who has been in and out of the system since 2011. You can almost track the decline through my experiences. In 2011 I had weekly appointments w/ a nurse, was offered many different types of therapies, was offered hospital stays (which I declined – but the option was there), and as of now, I have… my GP. I’ve attempted time and time again to access help but there is absolutely nothing out there: the NHS can’t help, won’t help, and doesn’t help. I have made a promise to myself to never even attempt to access any NHS mental healthcare anymore because the fact that it never actually happens worsens my mental state so much that it would be hilarious if it wasn’t so deeply tragic. And I’m one of the lucky ones – I have a lovely patient partner, and a loving family. God knows what my life would be like if I didn’t.
just today, my shopping trip into town was buggered by some bloke trying to throw himself either off the bridge or onto the railway tracks right near the bus station, at least 12 police cars turned up to very effectivley shut everything down before I saw a single ambulance, and half the town seemed to be out gawking and filming (realy, WTF are all these people going to do even if the poor sod jumped, a video of a bloke in the worst part of his life breaking bones, lying on the floor)
waiting for a bus at a busstop elswhere later on, some woman started gosiping to me about it “oh, I only heared it was a young bloke, over an hour he was there, terible that someone could get to that state! if only they’d ask for help”… I honestly wanted to lift up my trouser leg and show her the years of self harm scars just to shut her up about how it’s just a matter of reaching out for help. I’ve reached out for help for years, but even the people who do want to help don’t have the resources!
luckily my bus came before I gave that woman a taste of reality, I realy genuinley hope she has a good christmas. ignorance is bliss
A guy in NY was involuntarily committed, but they didn’t have a bed so they left him in the waiting room for 12 hours. When they went to get him he was gone. Turned up a week later dead in the river. I can’t imagine how “take a seat” is an acceptable thing to say to someone in that state
The systems in place feel like they are meant to let thousands fall into the gap of too unwell for one service and not unwell enough for another.
If you are struggling please look into peer support mental health charities. We have to help each other.
I beg everyone who can afford it. Get private health insurance, it’ll relieve the strain on the NHS and it’ll give those who can pay much less of a headache.
Private insurance isn’t expensive, this isn’t the USA, it poses no threat to the NHS. A 55 year old male smoker would only pay around £1000 per year for full cover, including cancer cover. The younger you are, the cheaper it gets.
Think of the difference though. You can park your car for free, see a doctor who isn’t rushed off their feet, they’ll spend plenty of time with you, so they could spot symptoms you weren’t even aware of. No long waiting times etc.
Or go to the NHS hospital, the car park will charge you whatever it feels like charging on that day, there probably won’t be any spaces within 6 miles of the actual hospital. So you’ve got a long walk ahead of you. Wind your way through to the packed out reception area and wait for an hour before the receptionist deals with you. When they do speak to you they look at you with utter contempt, then tell you to take a seat and “you might have to wait a while”. Then you spend the next 9 hours watching drunks stumbling around, gang members holding their friends guts in place as he’s had his tenth stab wound this week, mum’s nipping out for a fag every two minutes, fresh off the boat immigrants hitting on every woman in sight, people vomiting, fainting, screaming and shouting.
Finally you get called into another waiting area for a couple of hours where a doctor hurriedly asks you what’s wrong, you briefly tell them your problem, he scribbles on his pad, then walks off to chat to some nurses. After a couple of hours he remembers you’re still sat there, so he comes back and sends you for an x-ray. The x-ray dept is no better. In fact nothing ever gets better during this experience. Then three weeks later you die of some filth bug and they tell your relatives it was covid.
It’s your choice.
It took me sixth months to go from GP referral to a face to face appointment with an NHS therapist. That is lightening-quick compared to what some people have experienced. When that is the level of care we provide for a simple consultation, it is no wonder the NHS is crippled by mental health patients seeking help.
Was very close to killing myself at university last term. Went to hospital in an ambulance with some fairly deep cuts, was told they would need stitches. Was at hospital for two hours, being in the state of mind I was in I was intent on discharging myself, doctor came over to perform some kind of mental health capacity test (basically do you have any more plans to hurt yourself), I lied and was left to walk home in the rain for half an hour with an open wound and no shoes. It was only my friends forcing me to go back to hospital that I actually got the wound cleaned and stitched (later became infected probably because of the length of time it was just sitting there bleeding). Reluctant to blame a and e staff because they were obviously overstretched and underpaid/resourced but I still find it hilarious when people claim mental health has been destigmatised in the past few years. Mental health is still not treated with the same seriousness as physical health and that’s where we need to be.
16 comments
I remember the time mental health services didnt engage with me for 4 months and then said “you need to engage with us.”
Lmao
Discharging myself from mental health services has been the best thing I’ve done for my mental health.
The state of mental health care in this country…
Makes you mad, don’t it.
It’s impossible to get any kind of care in this country. 6 sessions of CBT do not count as care. They’re a pretence at it.
I have complex mental health needs. I have refused point blank to have anything via Zoom or it it involves CBT. This morning, I got an offer of care. They offered me a phone appointment with a CBT therapist.
I am deaf. I have emailed saying this and demanding an appointment that is accessible to me. That means face to face so I can lipread. No response as yet. When I miss this phone call, I’ll be to the back of the queue again. By the time they get their fingers out and offer something appropriate, I’ll be dead.
I mean that literally, by the way. I have a brain tumour that isn’t doing wonders for my lifespan. I’m having radiotherapy to try and shrink it, but there’s no guarantees. This thing could easily kill me within the year and I’m still getting nowhere with any help.
This party and Prime Minister persisted with austerity and cuts to mental health services for a decade. They have maximised COVID’s impact on our society through a political doctrine that made us more vulnerable to a threat that was predicted.
https://lowdownnhs.info/news/austerity-and-mental-health-the-extent-of-the-human-impact/
As someone who has dealt with this after A&E – the mental health services don’t offer you help unless you’re actively suicidal. What the actual fuck. If I was still actively suicidal I wouldn’t be trying to seek help. And then they put you on a 6 month waiting list just to get counselling which will only last a few sessions.
So a lot of this is actually reasonably understandable.
Mental health liaison in ED do not accept patients that aren’t medically fit. Meaning if you arrive following an overdose you’ll have to wait for it to be treated medically before the engage with you.
Paracetamol overdoses are the most common (and fucking stupid btw, you’re looking at a multiple days long agonising death if you don’t get treatment in time). The treatment takes several hours. Then you wait to be seen after everyone else. Then you get referred. 12 hours is sadly quite normal.
Our mental health services are actively predatory. They *cause* issues and then just monitor people. The British government did…something.. to David Shayler. Honestly if you guys knew how bad it was your perspective on life would totally change, I guarantee you.
I saw one patient had been in A&E at my hospital for 46 hours the other day. Poor girl
As someone who has spent the last decade working in mental health and also had experience trying to get support from services just prior to the pandemic. It’s absolutely fucked. We give service to those who are in crisis but if it isn’t crisis there is no support there.
We need to stop pasting over the crack and stop wondering why people get to the point of needing hospital.
We need to address the fundamental reasons why people are ending up in services and the broken parts of our society. Nothing will get better until we address this.
At the very least we need to actually invest fucking money in those services. Claps don’t fucking count.
The NHS has no mental healthcare anymore, and I’m speaking as someone who has been in and out of the system since 2011. You can almost track the decline through my experiences. In 2011 I had weekly appointments w/ a nurse, was offered many different types of therapies, was offered hospital stays (which I declined – but the option was there), and as of now, I have… my GP. I’ve attempted time and time again to access help but there is absolutely nothing out there: the NHS can’t help, won’t help, and doesn’t help. I have made a promise to myself to never even attempt to access any NHS mental healthcare anymore because the fact that it never actually happens worsens my mental state so much that it would be hilarious if it wasn’t so deeply tragic. And I’m one of the lucky ones – I have a lovely patient partner, and a loving family. God knows what my life would be like if I didn’t.
just today, my shopping trip into town was buggered by some bloke trying to throw himself either off the bridge or onto the railway tracks right near the bus station, at least 12 police cars turned up to very effectivley shut everything down before I saw a single ambulance, and half the town seemed to be out gawking and filming (realy, WTF are all these people going to do even if the poor sod jumped, a video of a bloke in the worst part of his life breaking bones, lying on the floor)
waiting for a bus at a busstop elswhere later on, some woman started gosiping to me about it “oh, I only heared it was a young bloke, over an hour he was there, terible that someone could get to that state! if only they’d ask for help”… I honestly wanted to lift up my trouser leg and show her the years of self harm scars just to shut her up about how it’s just a matter of reaching out for help. I’ve reached out for help for years, but even the people who do want to help don’t have the resources!
luckily my bus came before I gave that woman a taste of reality, I realy genuinley hope she has a good christmas. ignorance is bliss
A guy in NY was involuntarily committed, but they didn’t have a bed so they left him in the waiting room for 12 hours. When they went to get him he was gone. Turned up a week later dead in the river. I can’t imagine how “take a seat” is an acceptable thing to say to someone in that state
The systems in place feel like they are meant to let thousands fall into the gap of too unwell for one service and not unwell enough for another.
If you are struggling please look into peer support mental health charities. We have to help each other.
I beg everyone who can afford it. Get private health insurance, it’ll relieve the strain on the NHS and it’ll give those who can pay much less of a headache.
Private insurance isn’t expensive, this isn’t the USA, it poses no threat to the NHS. A 55 year old male smoker would only pay around £1000 per year for full cover, including cancer cover. The younger you are, the cheaper it gets.
Think of the difference though. You can park your car for free, see a doctor who isn’t rushed off their feet, they’ll spend plenty of time with you, so they could spot symptoms you weren’t even aware of. No long waiting times etc.
Or go to the NHS hospital, the car park will charge you whatever it feels like charging on that day, there probably won’t be any spaces within 6 miles of the actual hospital. So you’ve got a long walk ahead of you. Wind your way through to the packed out reception area and wait for an hour before the receptionist deals with you. When they do speak to you they look at you with utter contempt, then tell you to take a seat and “you might have to wait a while”. Then you spend the next 9 hours watching drunks stumbling around, gang members holding their friends guts in place as he’s had his tenth stab wound this week, mum’s nipping out for a fag every two minutes, fresh off the boat immigrants hitting on every woman in sight, people vomiting, fainting, screaming and shouting.
Finally you get called into another waiting area for a couple of hours where a doctor hurriedly asks you what’s wrong, you briefly tell them your problem, he scribbles on his pad, then walks off to chat to some nurses. After a couple of hours he remembers you’re still sat there, so he comes back and sends you for an x-ray. The x-ray dept is no better. In fact nothing ever gets better during this experience. Then three weeks later you die of some filth bug and they tell your relatives it was covid.
It’s your choice.
It took me sixth months to go from GP referral to a face to face appointment with an NHS therapist. That is lightening-quick compared to what some people have experienced. When that is the level of care we provide for a simple consultation, it is no wonder the NHS is crippled by mental health patients seeking help.
Was very close to killing myself at university last term. Went to hospital in an ambulance with some fairly deep cuts, was told they would need stitches. Was at hospital for two hours, being in the state of mind I was in I was intent on discharging myself, doctor came over to perform some kind of mental health capacity test (basically do you have any more plans to hurt yourself), I lied and was left to walk home in the rain for half an hour with an open wound and no shoes. It was only my friends forcing me to go back to hospital that I actually got the wound cleaned and stitched (later became infected probably because of the length of time it was just sitting there bleeding). Reluctant to blame a and e staff because they were obviously overstretched and underpaid/resourced but I still find it hilarious when people claim mental health has been destigmatised in the past few years. Mental health is still not treated with the same seriousness as physical health and that’s where we need to be.