Woeful mental health care ...

The daily weekly Prosecco bill?

Is there anything we can actually do about it, illtellhim? Are we not allowed to discuss it though and perhaps show a bit of empathy and support to fellow GNers who have real problems?

What does £63 refer to?

That sounds like the sort of place my uncle lived in for so many years, travelsafar, and where he felt safe. Obviously there were huge issues with many of the old institutions, but there was caring and appropriate treatment too for many. Why on earth was it ever thought that simply closing them all down instead of addressing the issues was the way forward?

Ok Ok Ok, I've heard the problems now what are you posters going to do about it.

Don't ask the tax payers to contribute more because, as a pensioner, I feel £63 a week is enough, and that's after we've paid NI for 47 years.

Is their a country which we can take as an example.

If anyone's interest my mental health is controlled by Prosecco, starts at 11:30 and continues until I pass out.

'Care in the Community' has a lot to answer for. All those people discharged into the care of visiting support are now developing issues relating to older people, dementia etc which are then added to their already poorly supported MH issues. We had a huge MH institution in our local area which had been running for many many years like an estate, they had a shop, farm, small factory units, a church and graveyard,plus it gave work of all kinds to hundreds of people now all that has gone a a huge housing estate sits on the land. Some of the older patients have now ended up in sheltered housing, they are like mini MH unitsinstead of a place of safety, security and company for older people in the wider community who would have given up family homes to move in. These older people are now looked after in the community and are developing MH issues due to isolation, depression, malnutrition, and everything associated with loneliness!!!!

A very familiar picture unfortunately. and !

DH had to give up his work years ago because of mental health problems. Prior to the closure of mental hospitals he had a few spells in hospital, one was particularly helpful. 30+ years ago he saw his psychiatrist regularly then those appts went down to annual but he had an excellent CPN (Community Psychiatric Nurse) who visited regularly and was available on the telephone. Then when he was 60 he was discharged from the mental health service and told if he needed help he had to go through his GP - often his unwell episodes had gone by the time there was any help. A CPN has visited him a few times through the GP but she had no case notes, knew nothing about his history, had never heard of his psychiatrist (now retired) and we think she has discharged him. She is very busy and there are people in worse scenarios than we are, basically it's me who copes with DH's episodes.

It wasn't until we had the experience as a family that we realised how inadequate the services available for mental health problems can be. When my son had a major breakdown it was so difficult to get help for him. He saw his GP who gave him a phone number to try and book some local 'talking therapy'. Some weeks later he was assessed and eventually a letter turned up saying they wouldn't accept him and suggested he try Relate. I won't go into what had happened with him and his ex and their experience with Relate but it certainly acted as a catalyst for their split! So, there he was stuck in his childhood bedroom, lost his job, lost his kids, lost his home and getting increasingly anxious and depressed. Prosac next. We found a local counselling group and he eventually started with CBT which did help. 6 weeks was the limit for treatment, but they said they'd get back to him.........I release now that their funding had stopped. We've worked hard and he is now finding his way out of the dark tunnel but we won't know where to go if he relapses.

jane - you're right to feel the system has failed you. I agree with you that the country seems to be run more for the rich than the poor, but that's a separate but very important subject.
And yes, the unhappiness etc has probably always been there, but unreported - 'stiff upper lip' etc
But eg the issue of self-harming in young people. In my 30 years of working with disturbed children and young people I never once came across that. It must have spread via the internet. Also the idea of taking one's own life in such young people

First of all no slur/ critism of anyone who works with the NHS. The situation is NOT THEIR fault. However it is a total failure when it comes to mental health care. My experience is with the youth. My nephew committed suicide. My dear sister and her husband were not allowed to know anything as he was 18, even though they were the first port of call when the Police picked him up walking barefoot and bleeding from self harming.
My friends son who is 16 can tell his parents to stay outside the consulting room, even though he is living with them and wholly dependant on them. He is delusional and very scary.
The whole mental Health Care in this country is a utter disgrace. If your child becomes mentally ill you will be on your own.
The same goes for non urgent but painful physical conditions. I have been ill for two excrutiating months with a bad back. I needed to take strong painkillers every 4 hours for weeks. The wait time for a MRI scan was six weeks, no Physio until I had MRI scan. Then, when I went privately it was four weeks for Physio. I just paid up.
The NHS already has a two tier system, one for the rich and then there are the rest of us. The whole system is in the hands of Jeremy Hunt ( Old Boy , Charterhouse, Oxford Degree in PP and worth at least 14 Million) you can imagine him waiting six weeks for a MRI scan NOT.

Christinefrance
I totally agree that the old mental hospitals gave support and safety to vulnerable people.
My mother was a psychiatrist in a big mental hospital in Nortumberland in the 60's.
She was in charge of a modern unit with the male and female side separated by a large lounge area and dining area where the patients could meet for social events under supervision.
The patients used to come and stay when they "were unable to cope" with the outside world.
The did have a padded cell, but it was on the female side, as some of the patients could get very aggressive and I was always nervous about going to that side.

TriciaF I think there always have been a lot of people suffering from mental illness in the same way there a lot of people suffering from cancer. Things are just talked about more and there are so many ways of disseminating information we are all more aware. People with mental health issues or learning disabilities were out of sight in large hospitals in years gone by.
Those hospitals were not all as bad as we imagine providing a place of safety and care for vulnerable people.

Sorry Jane

Drugs, alcohol, break up of families, the internet , breakdown in society , people too busy with their own lives to listen

Anniebach I was talking in much broader terms. Understanding is lovely but doing something to change services, far less just improve them, is something else altogether.

TriciaF, Drugs maybe!!!!

Jane10 She told me that she now has a support worker but I don't know how supportive she is. She just needs someone efficient whether it is a CPN, social worker, support worker or what. It would be an improvement if she were off the ground floor as these men can get to all her windows. Before she went into hospital her family were more involved but I don't think that they can always cope. Social services wouldn't talk to a neighbour and we get more information from the police than the Housing Office.

There's another aspect to this which I don't understand.
Over the last ?25 years there seems to have been a huge increase in the number of people suffering from mental illness, from mild to severe. Why is this?

And thanks again for your supportive words anniebach I hope you find a way through the isolation x

You seem a very kind person Jaycee to be there for your neighbour when she is so clearly ill and experiencing such difficulties.. it's really not many people who would do so. And it's a total scandal that there isn't more support for you supporting her. Talk about "care" in the community it's throw people to the dogs and the ones who don't make it are just collateral damage on some government spread sheet. Bloody hell it's depressing isn't it? Think I'm going to have to dig deep this afternoon and get out for a long walk in the sunshine to cheer up a bit! Blessings to all

Mental health doesn't need attention it needs understanding Jane

Patricia, you are not alone x but I admit I feel alone at times, things have been so bad this year I now live in almost total isolation , will be when my granddaughters go back to university this month. When you get the verbal abuse do tell yourself it's the illness not your daughter speaking

Could you contact Social Work Jaycee ? Might be worth a try. She's a vulnerable adult. Doesn't sound like she has capacity to make safe social judgements. I don't know where you are but up here there's the Mental Welfare Commission which can be contacted (possibly worth talking to them paddyann?).
I'm not bothered about the windsors but if they can somehow bring attention to the area of mental health care that's fine by me.

'Them' being the men not the neighbours.

I agree patricia. The neighbours have just decided that she is on crack but she went to a school for people with problems like hers so it is obviously long standing. I have been with her when she had an episode and thought she was possessed and she was very frightened. They get cross with me when I say that she is targeted but she clearly is. She is also attracted to them but that is part of the illness.
I could help her if it weren't for the sleep problem. I tried when she moved in and she was soon knocking at my door at 3.30 am and buzzing our intercoms through the night. The police think she needs to be somewhere with staff but it is hard to know who actually makes the decisions. It seems like teams passing the buck to each other.