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Struggling to get help from mental health services. What are my entitlements?

Hope

I had a meeting last week with the head of mental health services, or rather, the prevention and assessment team, and my CPN.

I had this meeting because I had written a letter of complaint about the lack of decent therapy, and the worsening of my mental health. Yet somehow the head of clinic had not received my letter!

The head of clinic used vague and abstruse language, and said that CBT was not 'clinically indicated'!. I had to ask her twice what she meant, and she seemed tense and on the defensive - my own support worker, also at the meeting, had also noticed this. I was told that my Asperger's would not affect what therapy I received, but that CBT had not really achieved much for me. I disputed this by arguing that I had only received CBT for 6 weeks, and it takes me that long just to build trust with someone; that it might work if it were longer in duration. This was rebuffed!!.  Then the head of clinic dropped in the red herring that eventually I would have to be 'discharged' from the service, and that eventually my support hours would have to be reduced. My support worker got angry on my behalf when this was mentioned, by saying that this could be quite some time ahead in the future, and that, due to my Asperger's, this vague talk of 'discharge' would only make me anxious. The head of clinic then got all defensive, and said, 'what do you mean in the future?'. I told them that eventually I hope to have a normal life, where I would not need so much support, but currently I have severe anxiety, and the whole point of the meeting was to secure for myself some decent therapy. Future discharge was irrelevant to the matter at hand. It is like I am being treated as a drain on resources, and that I have the impertinence to ask for more!

Eventually my CPN said she could work through some basic mindfulness techniques with me, but this would only be about once a month. I guess this is better than nothing, but the whole meeting had a negative tone. The head of clinic did not get Asperger's at all, and I did feel a bit discriminated against. What can I do to get the therapy I need?

 

  • I am in the same situation with my son whose 23 this year, i went back to my GP which he was so sympathetic and understood exactly where we were coming from and wrote a letter to them explaining I was not happy with these 2 certain people and wanted someone else, now I have a letter from these2 certain workers saying we are going to have a meeting without my son to disscuss the situation i have with them . You can guess whats going to happen cant you. I probably going to get my son dicharged for there incompetence of not doing there job right

  • I feel like they are all under instructions from above to try to fob people off, simply because of the costs, most people will simply give up when dismissed and they know that.

  • Hi Hope,                                                                                                         I'm not sure about your entitlements, but I'm completely on your side with regard to some of the dissmissive attitudes of some health professionals with regard to ASD. My GP was very much the same when I tried to get support for my son. You were left feeling that you were a burden.

    In fact time constraints on therapy seem common place now. Like all conditions are expected to 'get better' within a set time, irrespective of what they are or how certain conditions of anxiety affect an individual. I realize that trusts are accountable, but I have to challenge this 'bandaid to fix a broken limb' mentallity. To my mind quality time spent early on could well reduce the likelyhood of sufferers needing prolonged assisstance later and give adaquate healing time as well as a chance for coping strategies to be well practiced, but this is not a view shared by my GP.

    Additionally, when ASD service users should be focused on the trust building necessary to begin to tackle some of the anxiety issues they have, worrying about support being removed is an 'elephant in the room' that only serves as a barrier to healing.

    One good thing about our own trust however, is that they do have weekly, mindfulness courses that run throughout the year as part of the 'Health in Mind' service. It may be worth you looking to see if you can get a referral from your GP if this is offered in your own area and if the CPN support is limited, which it sounds like it is.  

    For my son, CAHM's was great at identifiying the reason for his anxiety, but very limited in support of managing his anxiety. Eventually, we had to look at support outside of the NHS mental health services. Mindfulness, councelling and NLP have all been effective in their own way for my son, but each person responds differently.

    I'm sorry I can't be of more help.

    Coogy xx