Woeful mental health care ...

Thanks for responding anniebach it really helps. And thanks to to imperfect for starting this thread. It makes me feel less alone and I will join you in your campaign when we're in that stronger place.

Annie I get irritated by the Windsors full stop....and by the way usually quite sensible people think they are godlike and wonderful people.....thats baldy Willie who only worked 16 hours a week and managed to have several homes ALL refurbed at huge expense ..he has to use the royal PR mill to keep his standard of living...this time its mental health ..I'm sure theres another bandwagon due soon for them to jump on

I disagree that no one else apart from the Windsors are doing anything, they made a TV appearance and no use at all . The charities such as Sane and Mind are giving support but are depenandant on the public for funding and volenteers.

I was irritated with the Windsors comparing their grief with mental illness and telling people to seek help to talk .

And me, over the years I have absorbed a lot of abuse - bless him, I know he has been unwell,, he has all my support, but it does take its toll. We have a well-documented history of depression and bi-polar in the family.

I am beginning to feel I need to make my voice heard, but not sure where to start. This week, my feelings of anger have been compounded because a.n.other family member has been poorly. She is a vulnerable young adult. She travelled some distance to be with her father who is her main supporter and was so psychotic he took her to A&E only to be told ' We cannot help her, she needs to travel back to her own health authority,' (hundreds of miles away).She attempted to take her life later that day ...

If I was visiting out of area and, for example, was involved in an accident, hurt and in need of treatment, I would not be asked to return to my own health authority.

In this instance, I have no doubt that being turned away at her point of dire need, contributed to this poor girl's trauma.

When I am not so raw and when I am in a stronger place, I do feel I need to start petitioning somebody!

A 10 year old with mental health issues was recommended by the school to get advice and an appointment was eventually given for an assessment - and then postponed to a later date! This is a child in need of help who with that help should be OK. The service is dire for the young, the middle aged and the elderly. Thank goodness the young royals are trying to do something about it because noone else is. The situation is increasingly worse. My mother had severe mental health problems and though her care was sporadic it was at least there and I'm talking about 50 years ago!!!

Same for me Patricia , the verbal abuse is distressing , I cope with dismissing it as 'that's the illness not my daughter ' . What makes things much more difficult is the - sorry we can't discuss her, patient confidentiality ' . She is now being treated for PTS , useless because she didn't suffer what they are treating her for, it's false memory.

Society does fall apart as you so rightly point out Jaycee but in my experience the majority of people who are lucky enough to be unaffected by mental health issues simply do not want to know and regard sufferers as simply "nutters" who need to take control of themselves and stop inflicting their condition on everyone. My DD is bipolar and is going through quite a severe episode at the moment and members of my own close family simply cannot see that she is ill rather than a gobby cow with an arrogant personality defect. I'm on my own trying to deal with this - her dear dad having passed away 17 years ago - and, as I'm the focus of her anger and the target of most of her verbal abuse, it's a very lonely place to be. She has pulled through in the past and when she isn't in the grip of an episode so loving and caring. She's my daughter I can't abandon her I just wish there was a better system in place to help us help ourselves.

It is a massive umberalla . A physical problem and the .GP refers one to a consultant. A mental problem and it's just one consultant who has to cover the lot .

Oh Jaycee that sounds awful. The 'community' is no place for her by the sound of it. I often used to think that some of the people I saw just plain needed some looking after and a break from all the worries of life.
Its a complex area to address. Psychosis is really scary and needs proper psychiatric care. Then there are affective disorders in a wide range of severities, drug and alcohol abuse/addiction and all tapering into anxiety and depression/depressive illness. Its unfortunate that words like anxiety and depression are commonly used by everyone at times as we can all feel a bit worried or low but not nearly at a threshold for psychiatric care. Then there are developmental disorders ASD, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia etc etc then add in learning disability (aka mental handicap) and its a recipe for a perfect storm of need and confusion around responsibility, training need and funding requirement. Sadly I see no answer to it all. Just throwing money wont necessarily help. It has to be accurately targeted and resourced. Sorry. Rant over. You'll not be surprised to hear that my blood pressure plummeted when I retired!

My neighbour was recently sectioned and was released after just over a week. She needs long term care.
While she was in hospital her flat was broken into twice on the same day (it took me ten minutes to persuade the 999 operator to send the police the first time). Then, a few days later the police executed a search warrant and broke her door down even though they had been in the flat with their forensic team earlier in the week and the neighbours had all told them that her family had been going into the flat. They also smashed the window to her car.
No one told her and she came home from hospital to find she couldn't get in and had a wailing fit in the street. I wasn't home or I would have gone out to her (she drives me frantic because she keeps us all awake but she still needs help).
We are dreading her coming back because she makes bad choices about people and so she gets targeted and there is nothing that we can do when the systems are all breaking down. The ambulance was called out at least 5 times before they eventually took her to hospital and I think that was because the police were insisting.
She is a difficult person to help because she thinks people are trying to take control but so far as I can see there are lots of people having meetings but no one actually helping her.
If she is speaking to me when she comes back (this varies), I am going to try to suggest that she speaks to a mental health advocate (there is a service in the borough but I don't know how good it is) as she is fighting on all fronts. Sometimes she'll say that she is going to be ok because the Goddess Isis is looking after her and other times she will go away muttering that I am watching her.
One of the neighbours is getting up a petition and although I don't want to go back to sleepless nights for months on end which made me seriously ill and I do think the neighbours need to work together, it feels wrong.
I think society falls apart without good mental health care (and that does include care for anxiety and addictions).

Shortage of money yes. My DS was referred back to a different authority yesterday with no guarantee he will eventually be seen and reassessed, but because the authority he has moved into has no money for the service he requires. He needs a medical review which is becoming increasingly urgent and most likely 1:1 therapy - provided in the past, now maybe not.

So we watch and wait and support - not easy because we are not local and this has already meant expense re visits - more to come no doubt. And we hope he doesn't worsen in the meantime. But it feels like (at least) a month of his life is on hold. And it is not easy for him to try to be positive when the message he is getting is 'You are not important enough to help.' And meanwhile, we worry that because he is not in work and the benefits system is so tight, he may also lose his home and his hard won independence which will no doubt hamper his recovery.

He is just one of thousands. Not an addict, not a substance abuser, but someone who suffers acutely from anxiety and depression at times and has been suicidal in the past, who cannot get access to the help he needs to make him better.

I know nothing is going to change quickly or easily, but I often have that phrase 'blood on their hands' running through my head when I think of the policy makers. I hope to God, it is not my son's blood.

Sorry that this is so stark. I am not writing to ask for support or sympathy. I just feel this widening problem of woefully inadequate support needs recognition. The government spews out figures to say they are putting more money and more resources in, but - as for so many areas of the NHS, the reality is that it is not enough.

Apparently there is a shortage of money in the sector and yet, having worked in some of the private facilities used by the NHS huge sums are spent on some very shoddy provisions.

The people at the coal face are doing sterling work, and the police do their best but really the whole thing needs an urgent shake up.

There are just too many calls on the services now, people with anxiety and depression can self refer to many services CBT and Mindfulness, howeve addictions and their aftermath have very little support, and are a problem that we did not have in anything like the numbers we have now 20 years ago, they are a whole tranche of care need that existing fundong cannot cover adequately.

Until we can persuade people to take better care of themselves, the mentally ill are going to be under resourced, as the tidal wave of anxious people and addicts impinge on the availabe resources.

As others have indicated, the police are picking up a lot of the slack, and often have to resort to accommodating people with mental health issues in their cells, not because they have committed a crime, but simply because there is nowhere else for them to go. This can mean that they then have to scout around looking for somewhere to put the people who do come under their remit and should be in those cells.

My uncle spent nearly all his adult life in one of the old style asylums. It was his home and refuge - he felt safe there and would never have coped out in the community.

Oriel of course mental ill health is enormously diverse. A wide range of interventions should be available from medication to the various talking treatments and all points in between.

paddyann I meant that there's lots of training available re mindfulness and no reason for someone to come over from Canada to teach on it!

I support what has been said by those on here who have worked in mental health.
I had some experience in the old hospital-type institutions, and in spite of their reputation and many problems they were a haven for people who could never cope in the outside world. In spite of modern drugs, there are still people who need that security.
Later I worked in mental health of children and adolescents and at the time, and in our area, the facilities were quite good. I don't know what has happened to them since then (1990)

Whilst mindfulness classes may work for some illnesses, for serious mental health conditions they are of absolutely no use whatsoever.

BlueBelle is right, mental health workers are struggling with a system that has let everyone down. There are not enough emergency beds, hospitals and Mental Health Units have closed down across the country. Many people with mental health issues need a place of safety where they can get treatment as Jane10 said. So called Care in the Community has failed on so many levels.

Long day. Dr has clearly looked at his notes which does make a difference, but DS is being referred out of burrough for next steps ...all money related decisions ..and no guarantee that previous healthcare people will take him back on. Waded through long and complex benefit claim forms ...mashed my head so don't know how he would have managed alone. Feel we have made some baby steps. Making my way back to Kent. Hot bath and a glass of wine very welcome this evening!!!

maybe in Edinburgh Jane10 but not in our neck of the woods

'Mindfulness' is not particularly unusual here and classes and groups are already available.

my friend works in mental health care in Canada ,she works from a surgery which has over 35000 patients she runs mindfulness workshops as well as the "usual" clinics and personal sessions.She intends to visit here perhaps 6 weekly and offer her mindfulness workshops to mental health patients who need the facility.I dont have mental health issues ,my daughter suffers badly from depression...allied to a chronic health problem and she found the mindfulness helpful when our friend has been here .Its unconventional but sometimes approaching things differently from the norm is the best way.My friend is in discussions with the local health board about them utilising her services to train the mental health personnel they already have .She wa sfor a very long time the highest qualified in her field in Canada

I have to say that the one group of people who have really been there for my troubled relative is the police. They have been unfailingly polite, concerned and caring - and above all full of common sense. They have also been horrified on many occasions at the absence of true joined up care; and indeed it was a policewoman who convened the much needed multi-disciplinary meeting which eventually unlocked some help.

I attended so many meetings where closure of long term hospitals were planned with relish. The belief that 'the community' would provide the ideal location for so many tortured souls had me incandescent with rage at times. There is so much to be said for the old fashioned sounding 'asylum' with its true meaning of a refuge.
On out patients clinic days I would often be tripping over long suffering policemen in the waiting room frequently handcuffed to very disturbed people. It was scary and intimidating for the patients who had come to see me. I have to say though that some of the policemen were very kind and had a good way with some of their captives. Not all of them of course.

Mental hospitals were closed and 'care in the community' came in. Many councils provided houses where three or four people with mental illness could live, but the public fought to have them closed ,NIMBY.

Mental health nursing is not top of the list for a profession in health care . and we have become a self centred society.