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?
