Summer depression

The heat could be a sensory issue causing you even more discomfort and dis-regulation. This is especially uncomfortable if you cannot escape it and find a nice cool place. Are you in any sort of therapy for the issues with the bullying? I think bullying should be a crime in itself, however I don’t think we have enough judges available to deal with the toxicity of society.

Heat is deffo a sensory issue I can agree with you there! I can’t get the right temp at all and it’s worse in bed, either I’m too hot and sticky or I feel some what chilly when I have no quilts it’s so fussy for me lol. I have tried numerous therapies but nothing g seems to be helping, I have a drs appointment on Thursday so I might ask about what nhs have to offer if anything. Also started new meds so hopefully they help

Heat is deffo a sensory issue I can agree with you there! I can’t get the right temp at all and it’s worse in bed, either I’m too hot and sticky or I feel some what chilly when I have no quilts it’s so fussy for me lol. I have tried numerous therapies but nothing g seems to be helping, I have a drs appointment on Thursday so I might ask about what nhs have to offer if anything. Also started new meds so hopefully they help

Ugh A and E were useless with me as well. And the paramedics who came to see me the other weekend weren’t any more helpful, all I get are crisis numbers and charity run places and if I’m honest the places are in very rough areas so I won’t feel comfortable going as well there are a lot of crimes etc! I have considered complaining about the place I was referred to but it means getting involved with the local MPs and I’m not sure how helpful they’d be. Not trying to cause trouble here and I am only wanting a quick answer to this but wasn’t it the Labour Party who came up with the NHS? I don’t understand politics 

Some of these psychiatric services fall way below expected standards of care, shockingly. It’s worth putting in complaints sometimes if you feel the level of care that was provided to you fell short but you may have to go above the head of this centre. I’m quite lucky where I am as there’s services available this end of England although in a crises it’s just a visit to A+E which isn’t ideal for the over stretched NHS. 

Yeah, I'll believe that when I see it! The Senedd's very good at coming up with ideas and stratagies and very poor at implementing them, as far as I can tell it's still at the talking about it stage, rather than the active stage.

Thank you for all that info! I will mention this to my dr and look into those links. 

While there's the widely adopted NHS Community Mental Health Framework (CMHF) for England,

- Wales has developed its own framework;

"A Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy for Wales 2025-2035":

- which aims to create a country where mental health is supported, stigma is eliminated, and people are empowered to improve their wellbeing.

This new strategy is guided by four vision statements and multiple principles, focusing on place-based, community-integrated mental healthcare models.

www.gov.wales/mental-health-and-wellbeing-strategy-2025-2035

Does this include the devolved Nations such as Wales or is it an England only thing?

Have you heard of something (within the NHS) known as the "Community Mental Health Framework" which superceded the "Care programme approach (CPA)"?

I mention it as lots of people may have previously heard about Secondary Care mental health "Care Plans" and GP Practice annual health checks for adults with mental health issues / learning disabilities / Autism.

Sometimes it seems as though - just as fast as you think you have begun to understand the NHS mental health services initiatives / programmes names, buzzwords / phrases and acronyms ...the NHS then tries to improve things by re-naming everything involved in delivering those services.

This makes it harder to operate your self-advocacy, navigate the system effectively and complain productively if the need were to arise - as it hard to keep track of the current "hot topic" terminology. 

Why does that matter?  Because budget will have been assigned to the latest "hot topic" in mental health services and you stand a chance of asking for something which a) still exists and b) for which there should be a live referral pathway.

At the end of the Rethink CPA-related fact sheet (because people realise there is turmoil as the intention to phase out the CPA to then rollout the Community Mental Health Framework) the - Rethink guidance says this:

"7. What can I do if I am not happy with the help I am getting?

There are lots of reasons why you may be unhappy with the help you are
getting. You may feel the following.

• You should be getting help under the care programme approach (CPA).
• Your care plan doesn't cover all of your needs.
• The services you get don’t help you.
• Your CPA stopped before it should have.
• You aren’t happy with your relationship with your care coordinator.

To try and sort a problem you could try the following.
• Talk to your care coordinator.
• Talk to the manager of the service.
• Get a community advocate or friend to help you to talk to professionals.
• Make a formal complaint.
• Tell your local Member of Parliament (MP).

You can find out more information about:
• Advocacy
• Complaining about the NHS or social services

at www.rethink.org .

Or call our General Enquiries Team on

0121 522 7007

and ask them to send you a copy of our factsheet"

Background information and a fact sheet by Rethink:

There is a good collection of background information sources about CPA and beyond - collected together here:

https://www.rethink.org/advice-and-information/living-with-mental-illness/treatment-and-support/care-programme-approach-cpa/

"The Community Mental Health Framework describes how the [NHS] Long Term Plan’s vision for a place-based community mental health model can be realised, and how community services should modernise to offer whole-person, whole-population health approaches, aligned with the new Primary Care Networks."

What I would suggest is that, now the relevant phrases involved are more available; look on the website of the Integrated Care Board (ICB) for your county, search for:

- the programmes and see what the latest status news and points of contact (email) might be,

- see if there is a lived experience / expert by experience group where mental health "service users" hold an involvement group in your area for patients and carers

- check if their is an adult mental health involvement team where people may have job titles such as "Experience and Involvement Facilitator, Adult and Older Adult Mental health"

... because these people / groups will have lived experience "been there" (either themselves or their loved one) and be more aware of what should be available in your area, what is actually happening (good or needs improvement), to which resources / options you should have access and who to contact if that has not yet been facilitated in your case.

Someone once said that:

"nobody cares as much about your mental health as you do"

- so even at tough moments - it is really good to remind yourself:

- to keep fighting for your rights and needs

- as you will know best what could support you in your recovery journey

- but you might need help from local NHS healthcare professionals and local mental health charity outreach organisations at points along your route.

If you aren't ready to attend an in person group local to you - there are online course options at the Recovery College Online.  (Press the button at the bottom of each screen to load more course descriptions):

www.recoverycollegeonline.co.uk/.../

Good luck with everything.

Tell me about it! The centre has had very bad reviews and takes advantage of mentally unstable people. Even my new GPs have said that. The excuses was that there were delays due to the psychiatrist being unwell and then the notes got lost in transit! I mean why couldn’t I just see the psychiatrist? As you say, probably imaginary! The one thing I did get from that centre was a magnet with the crisis numbers on! Like come on! I obviously can’t say where the place is but if I’m honest the majority of England seem to be having the same issues. Is overpopulation the cause? They say they need more staff but not all of us are gifted and there are people who are squeamish too. Plus there are so many strikes going on lately. 

That’s really shocking that you cannot be seen and assessed by a psychiatrist, this is England? They seem to be treating this psychiatrist like the wizard of oz hidden behind some curtain or maybe they don’t even exist and this is some cover up?. It’s extremely worrying of the main process of communication over serious mental health difficulties is notes on paper passed from pillar to post!

Thank you! The dr can only refer me to a place near a hospital but not part of the hospital if that makes sense. There I'd have to see a psychiatric nurse and they are supposed to pass on the info to the psychiatrist who then diagnoses (if needed) on the notes of the nurse. I went with them twice due to showing signs of bipolar and schizophrenia and I never got any proper answers as my notes got “lost” in transit. So in the end I ended up spending over £400 on a general assessment privately and thankfully had bipolar and schizophrenia ruled out and got the EUPD diagnosis! Just as long as I don’t need blood tests I mean my phobia of jabs is honestly so bad I can tell you I’m the most scared of jabs person on this planet haha! 

You can’t be referred to a psychiatrist? Where I am we can self refer to telephone/online therapy. It’s a free NHS service focusing on talking therapies. This is how I engaged in CBT although it wasn’t the best for me it definitely helps some people. I have taken their ideas away with me and try to reframe some of my concerns so I have learnt something from it. I do prefer the one to one, face to face talking therapy where you can build a professional relationship with the therapist but these types of treatments are really hard to come by now unless you pay privately. Good luck with your appointment Thursday. 

Ah no! No one has ever mentioned that, in fact I’ve never heard of it. I will look into that and possibly get if I think it will be useful. Thanks for the link! 

Has anyone mentioned to you the below book? (popular with many of us here):

The Autistic Survival Guide To therapy

By Steph Jones

uk.jkp.com/.../the-autistic-survival-guide-to-therapy

I have tried all sorts of therapy but I guess I’m willing to try again. Can’t afford a psychologist though and that’s what drs seem to recommend and where I am, we don’t have psychologists on the nhs, only have one psychiatrist who we aren’t even able to see. We have to see a psychiatric nurse who then passes the info on to the psychiatrist supposedly but the nurse I saw was so rude to me and discharged me before my info got passed to the psychiatrist. And that was more than once. I do have a dr appointment on Thursday so I’ll see what he says. Don’t see why I should have to pay though, easy for them to say go into therapy for life time 

I think therapy can help a lot due to having someone outside the family circle to unload on and do so without judgement. The right therapist can help you make sense of your issues and view them from a different angle you perhaps may not have thought of yourself. I’ll never understand why people bully others in the first place and do so without any care for how it makes the other person feel. Is it a pack mentality where it’s accepted by the individuals (The bullies) because if everyone’s doing it I can to?. For one it’s a very immature thing to do, there’s a lot of talk of autistic people lacking empathy but we know wrong when we see it.