Mental health referral fallen through

honeybee1234

Since being a teenager, I have had varying levels of mental health issues. Over the last ten years, these have manifested, and the last four years have been a perfect storm of intensity; I've had numerous points of contact with the police and mental health services due to being in a domestic abuse situation, and was subsequently r*ped by an acquaintance which led to me being sectioned, medicated and two years on from that, I've still not recovered. I'm on a waiting list for specialist counselling that's a two year wait. 

Due to safeguarding issues, I had to move area, and changed GP surgery. I was referred from my previous community mental health team to my new local one, and they've discussed me at panel and turned me down. I've been referred to the mental health nurse at my local surgery, who has made an appointment for me... in September.

I've seen my notes online and I feel quite let down. My last psychiatrist appointment was a 5 minute call by the new psychiatrist who I'd never met before before I moved; he wrote that I was managing well when I actually said I was struggling with my PTSD anxiety and would like to increase my current anti-anxiety med dosage. The phone appointment with the new mental health nurse was pleasant but she wrote that I was "unemployed and anxiety is my biggest issue currently"; I have diagnosed PTSD and other major mental health issues and cannot work, I have a carer to help me get out of the house and support me with daily living.

I feel like I've fallen through the cracks and I'm choked up and I don't know what to do. I was waiting on my referral for support again and now I have nothing and I don't know what to do. 

Can anyone offer any advice? 

tightauldgit

I can absolutely sympathise with your position. Having spent 5 or 6 years trying to get mental health support from the NHS I have pretty much given up with it and just doing my best to get on with things. I was left with a similar feeling that you fall between the cracks and nobody picks up the slack. Plus with waiting lists of 1-2 years just to speak to someone it hardly seems worth the effort sometimes to try something new. 

I don't really know what to suggest to help other than to offer sympathy and hope you can find something that works. One potential solution would be to see what private options are out there - but i know that's not an answer if you don't have funds, I'm in the same boat on that one. Otherwise probably the best place to start is back with a GP - sit down and tell them what you've said above, that you are having issues and don't think they are being addressed and want to know what options there are. 

I think you need to just keep pushing on every option they give you and don't just accept being ignored. Most people in the NHS genuinely want to help if they can but there's so few resources in mental health that it's just difficult to do a good job.   

honeybee1234

tightauldgit said:

I can absolutely sympathise with your position. Having spent 5 or 6 years trying to get mental health support from the NHS I have pretty much given up with it and just doing my best to get on with things. I was left with a similar feeling that you fall between the cracks and nobody picks up the slack. Plus with waiting lists of 1-2 years just to speak to someone it hardly seems worth the effort sometimes to try something new. 

I don't really know what to suggest to help other than to offer sympathy and hope you can find something that works. One potential solution would be to see what private options are out there - but i know that's not an answer if you don't have funds, I'm in the same boat on that one. Otherwise probably the best place to start is back with a GP - sit down and tell them what you've said above, that you are having issues and don't think they are being addressed and want to know what options there are. 

I think you need to just keep pushing on every option they give you and don't just accept being ignored. Most people in the NHS genuinely want to help if they can but there's so few resources in mental health that it's just difficult to do a good job.   

Thankyou so much for your thoughtful reply. It's so sad that so many people have similar issues with trying to get mental health support and I sympathise with you also. I completely understand that the threshold for secondary mental health support is stringent for the reasons you touched upon, resources/money/staffing and this is why I've found it doubly frustrating, having accessed this prior to moving, and having weekly support and therapy, I mistakenly believed it would be a matter of simply transferring over to the secondary mental health team in this area. I was wrong.

I've contemplated seeing a psychiatrist privately but it seems a bit fruitless given there's no way I'd be able to continue anything regularly due to the cost, let alone pay for the therapy I was having before. Again - I'm guessing a lot of people think similarly! 

Great minds think alike on going back to the GP! I called them earlier, and have a phone appointment next week. Hopefully I'll be okay until then. 

tightauldgit

honeybee1234 said:

tightauldgit said:

I can absolutely sympathise with your position. Having spent 5 or 6 years trying to get mental health support from the NHS I have pretty much given up with it and just doing my best to get on with things. I was left with a similar feeling that you fall between the cracks and nobody picks up the slack. Plus with waiting lists of 1-2 years just to speak to someone it hardly seems worth the effort sometimes to try something new. 

I don't really know what to suggest to help other than to offer sympathy and hope you can find something that works. One potential solution would be to see what private options are out there - but i know that's not an answer if you don't have funds, I'm in the same boat on that one. Otherwise probably the best place to start is back with a GP - sit down and tell them what you've said above, that you are having issues and don't think they are being addressed and want to know what options there are. 

I think you need to just keep pushing on every option they give you and don't just accept being ignored. Most people in the NHS genuinely want to help if they can but there's so few resources in mental health that it's just difficult to do a good job.   

Thankyou so much for your thoughtful reply. It's so sad that so many people have similar issues with trying to get mental health support and I sympathise with you also. I completely understand that the threshold for secondary mental health support is stringent for the reasons you touched upon, resources/money/staffing and this is why I've found it doubly frustrating, having accessed this prior to moving, and having weekly support and therapy, I mistakenly believed it would be a matter of simply transferring over to the secondary mental health team in this area. I was wrong.

I've contemplated seeing a psychiatrist privately but it seems a bit fruitless given there's no way I'd be able to continue anything regularly due to the cost, let alone pay for the therapy I was having before. Again - I'm guessing a lot of people think similarly! 

Great minds think alike on going back to the GP! I called them earlier, and have a phone appointment next week. Hopefully I'll be okay until then. 

If you feel that you can swing it then it might not hurt to have a few private sessions with a psychiatrist who might at least be able to better diagnose the issues and maybe give you something you can show to the NHS to get more help? At the very least they might be able to give you some advice on what the best thing to do is. If you are honest about your situation and what you want out of it up front it could be useful. 

It may well vary from location to location but as far as I know there really isn't much in the way of talking therapy or counselling support on the NHS - everything is basically CBT and medication. I guess they are trying to hit what works for the 80%. Unfortunately I found it didn't work for me and after trying a couple of things with a year wait to get on them that was basically when I got to the end of the road with what they could offer.

It's incredibly disheartening to wait a year for something and then be dismissed or realise it's not going to work pretty quickly and then know that you would have to sign up for another year wait to try something else which might be equally ineffective.