Mentally Ill friend

whitewing

poog, how did your friend get on with the gp?

poog

whitewing wrote: »

poog, how did your friend get on with the gp?

Not great, The GP was carp. Said that she would refer her to Mind, but other than that just to try and take her AD's and book an appointment in two weeks to go in. Phonecall lasted about 3 minutes.

There was abit of a drama last night as she had abit to drink and reveiled she's planning on killing herself for the benefit of BF & the girls.

So BF walked out in tears but came back and spent most of the night in tears. Its all very sad.

I think he is going to ring the doctors today because somethings going to give, either she's going to hurt herself or unitentionally hurt someone else.

whitewing

What's her health visitor like? Get her bf to ring the hv. He needs to have someone looking after him and the family as a whole. The hv will come to her house. The hv will also speak to the dr if she needs another appointment.

Also, get her to take her anti-d's as they will help her to accept the help when she does get into the system.

Can she or the bf ring the samaritans when she starts to escalate. Talking it thro with someone will help.

Will it help if bf just calmly repeats that she is a good mum and lovely person. That's what my DH does if he sees me going downhill (it's not quite the same situation).

Keep persisting but don't expect 1 person to provide the breakthrough - try to get help from as many sources as possible. Definitely try and get hv on board - she is there for bf and mum as much as, if not more, than the children.

poog

The health visitor is pretty good and comes out once a month, theres only 3 covering a very big area of the county. She did start teaching her techniques to deal with stress but the last appointment was changed. So I am not sure when she is ringing to rebook.

Friend has issues with using/answering the phone and doesnt keep a mobile so it can be quite tricky to get in touch. I think now BF is abit more clued up as to just how bad she is feeling is good in some ways as it seems like he is going to be abit more perceptive now.

I agree that him and the girls need lots of support too so i'll recommened they speak to the HV

whitewing

I had issues with using the phone when I was really bad. But was okay with texts. Could they get a payg mobile that only you, bf and medical profession use? I am sure the hv would ring her on the mobile in between visits. Or get bf to ring the hv regularly. She will make notes on her contact with him too so at least there will be a good trail there. If he has enough contact (not moaning and anger, just conversation about how things are) then there will start to be a pattern building up.

Some of my stuff tracks back to childhood so I thought it was normal to be like I was as I hadn't experienced anything else. When I spoke to people it was in such a matter of fact way that I used to normalise it for them too. It was only when hv and DH were both listening to me and looked aghast at each other that the penny began to drop for me.

Indie_Kid

poog wrote: »

Friend has issues with using/answering the phone and doesnt keep a mobile so it can be quite tricky to get in touch. I think now BF is abit more clued up as to just how bad she is feeling is good in some ways as it seems like he is going to be abit more perceptive now.

Can you or her bf call on her behalf? In one way that might be easier - if she doesn't realise how ill she really is.

If your friend does feel suicidal, she can present herself at A&E.

sarah*a

Have just read this thread and was wondering how everything was going?

I have mental health issues (see side <

---

) and I have to say that my mental health team are great. However, it took months of GP appointments to get the referrals I needed and in the end I think I got them because they realised I wasn't going to give up until I got what I wanted/needed.

I have a fabulous support worker who I give at least 50% of the credit for getting me back on my feet and able to function daily - but she was the third support worker I had and really fought to change the ones I didn't get on with.

I've been lucky, I know, because despite being very ill at times I was always super aware of how ill I was and could fight my corner - It pains me when I attend my support groups and see people struggling because they just take what the GP/Psych Dr's/Support Workers etc have said as gospel - or when they know it isn't but daren't speak up.

Anyhoo - this was a very long winded way of saying - if you don't get satisfaction please don't give up! Try, Try and Try again and again and again - make THEM fed up of seeing your friend so they do something.

Good Luck