Disappointed in mental healthy service

Jacko_amz

Hiya everyone,

My partner has been having a bit of an emotional breakdown for the last 6months, 95% of the time he's absolutely fine but when something happens he really struggles, he worries about a lot of things his son who he rarely sees, money etc. he struggles with his anger and coping with his emotions so much so he started to self harm and admitted to wanting to end it all. He went to the GP who referred him to our local mental health wellbeing service. This took a further 28days to get an appointment through, he went and spoke to a psychologist who did an assessment and informed him they take it to a forum and discuss what they can offer him. During this time he took 3weeks off as he couldn't face work.

This was over a month ago, he received a letter today saying the only thing they can offer him is an emotional wellbeing group which is run for 12 weeks on a Wednesday. My partner works full time there is no way he can do this, we feel very let down by the service. Both from the lengthy time scale and due to lack of service offered to him now even though when really low he self harms and wants to end his life! Do I have a case to complain?

I just feel like how bad does he need to be for them to offer a better service. He has many unresolved issues raising from his own childhood and I feel that a 1:1 counselling service would be far suitable for his needs.
Any advice would be great fully received xx
Ps sorry noticed the title says healthy not health! Bloody autocorrect

InsideInsurance

He saw a psychologist or psychiatrist?

Is there a Crisis service or equivalent in your area?

A friend's partner has gone through mental health issues in recent years, initially they were covered by private health insurance and were seen by a psychiatrist within 2 days of the GP referral, was checked into the hospital/ seen daily as a day patient for a couple of months and followed by frequent checkups for over a year.

Unfortunately the cover on their insurance was limited so when they had a relapse they went the NHS route and they were seen by social workers or nurses more often than doctors and as soon as they started saying they werent feeling too bad then the doctor wanted to discharge them.

That said they were impressed with the crisis service even if they are more about talking than diagnosis/ prescribing

Levi-

It seems to differ so much from Local Authority to Local Authority, which I suspect is all down to how much budget is allocated to mental health services.
My personal experience in a similar situation was: GP ---> medication ----> referral to local mental health clinic for assessment ---> delay of about a month until i had this appointment ---> assessed ----> offered counselling but on waiting list for many many weeks.. (my assessment was not a pleasant experience, patronising and little knowledge from consultant about the things i tried to elaborate on).

decided to self-manage with the aid of medication but i too have lost a lot of faith in the NHS mental health service due to what seems to be a bit of a hit and miss situation with excessive delays and inconsistency throughout. i am very reluctant to approach them about it again but fortunately have a good GP who is helpful on the medication side of things.

Wellyboots6

I had a bad experience with mental health services and when they failed to contact me to book another appointment I didn't bother chasing it up.
I wish I could be more positive as I know they are snowed under and work as hard as they can, but for me it just didn't really help much at all.

arbrighton

They may not have been allocated the funding to be able to offer 1:1 counselling for everyone. They'd love to offer it I'm sure, but counsellors cost money.

carefullycautious

Hi, could he talk with Occupational health who could support him with his request to take the time off to attend the meetings. After all in the long run it is in the companies interest to have a healthy employee (physically and mentally)


Much better than him having to take weeks off work sick.

Jacko_amz

i'm aware of all the cut backs etc and i fully understand we just feel so let down. insideinsurance he saw a psychological therapist for his assessment, during the assessment they advised him they don't think its depression so medication is not the answer however they do think he has problems with anxiety/stress/anger and not being able to cope with them.

do most GPs have a counselling service attached to them? his current one does not so we may change GPs. as i said most of the time he is fine but a small thing can trigger him and to be totally honest its so scary, normally i am enough to calm him down and get him to see sense but i am afraid that one day i may not be, we want him to get the help now so he can start to work through this. Private isnt an option as its far to expensive. Thanks everyone for replying, its awful how many bad experiences people have of mental health services yet they wish to cut funds

Jacko_amz

we haven't thought of occupational health, he works in the NHS so this is available. When he went back to work and completed his back to work assessment he declined OH input as he was waiting for the wellbeing service to respond.

beluga

Hi, unfortunately your situation is far from unusual I volunteer at a mental health charity and have seen this and worse many times. My personal experience wasn't much better tbh. I was suicidal and was discharged and sent home with no follow up.

In regards to counselling, I don't know if it varies,but in my area the GP refers you to the mental health team and they assess, then if you get counselling you see someone from the area, not attached to your GP practice. I'm currently on a waiting list and my GP knows nothing about it (that's a whole different issue!).

If he works for the NHS then utilise any help they can offer, trying a different avenue might help. x

System

No idea if this might help, but there was a huge drive to try and start up Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (know as IAPT) most surgeries should have the details, i know from one of the leaflets i have one to one counselling is offered through them, you can check here http://www.iapt.nhs.uk/services/ to try and find services near you

Sadly my own experiences of MH services mean i know its not an easy ride. After my initial breakdown (and at that point about 10 years of various problems) i only got a referal to CMHT (community mental heath team) AFTER i'd attempted suicide. After that i got a psychiatrist and a CPN (community psychiatric nurse). Annoyingly as soon as things stablised i got discharged to my GP where i am still at now, despite having bipolar and really needing a psych.

I wish you the best of luck with this difficult journey. Also just to mention if you have a Rethink or Mind near by they may be able to either offer counselling at a reduced rate or at least signpost you to better help.

Mrs_Ryan

Speaking from experience as being a former NHS employee who had a partially work related stress breakdown, Occy Health will only be any use in assessing whether you are fit to go back to work.
As it happens, the doctor I saw was very good and in fact his report helped me get ESA but they aren't really interested in trying to get you access to any services and always seem to refer you back to your GP.
That said the trust I worked for had a counselling service through Amica so it may be worth exploring whether the trust your OH works for offers such a service and whether they can be of any help to him.
I wish you luck- I worked in mental health services until recently and in short they're an utter shambles. I am very lucky in the sense of I am under the psycho-oncology team who are amazing but I know the care my Oh has had has been worse than awful. I hope your OH gets the help he needs x