Mental Health Services

At the moment I am really struggling to access counselling. The problem with that is I get myself tied up in knots and blocked on certain tasks so easily, and I could do with some help for this, but one of the tasks I am blocked on is actually getting help for it! I have decided counselling or coaching might help, but I go look and get overwhelmed by the options. Some of the things they give you a choice of I have no idea about, like type of counselling, other things I don't care about, like gender of the counsellor or location as I would only access remotely by phone or video anyway. Then they would want to ask loads of questions, not all of which I feel are relevant and some are really hard to answer. Admin and form filling are very phobic for me (PIP is horrific). And I find it very hard to make phone calls.

I even tried asking my husband's counsellor for help! But although he tried he didn't seem to understand quite what my problem exactly was, although he did help me today decide that probably autism is the thing to focus on first (I have other issues as well and struggle to prioritise).

So I would say point of access is a consideration. Maybe have various paths of access as some of us struggle with different things. An explanation of the process of access and the process of the help would be useful so we don't have to worry so much about the unknown. A choice of in person, phone or video chat is vital as some of us cannot do one or two of those and it is different which for each person. Access needs to be easy, not too many hoops to jump through! A choice of an online form (with explanations for some of the questions depending on what) or being able to speak with a person to help do the form. It would be nice for some or all of the questions to have an option to write something not just pick multi choice, or to say I don't know or not sure or it depends or sometimes a and sometimes b or whatever! 

That's all I can think of for now. Thank you for asking, I'm glad this is being looked at.

At the moment I am really struggling to access counselling. The problem with that is I get myself tied up in knots and blocked on certain tasks so easily, and I could do with some help for this, but one of the tasks I am blocked on is actually getting help for it! I have decided counselling or coaching might help, but I go look and get overwhelmed by the options. Some of the things they give you a choice of I have no idea about, like type of counselling, other things I don't care about, like gender of the counsellor or location as I would only access remotely by phone or video anyway. Then they would want to ask loads of questions, not all of which I feel are relevant and some are really hard to answer. Admin and form filling are very phobic for me (PIP is horrific). And I find it very hard to make phone calls.

I even tried asking my husband's counsellor for help! But although he tried he didn't seem to understand quite what my problem exactly was, although he did help me today decide that probably autism is the thing to focus on first (I have other issues as well and struggle to prioritise).

So I would say point of access is a consideration. Maybe have various paths of access as some of us struggle with different things. An explanation of the process of access and the process of the help would be useful so we don't have to worry so much about the unknown. A choice of in person, phone or video chat is vital as some of us cannot do one or two of those and it is different which for each person. Access needs to be easy, not too many hoops to jump through! A choice of an online form (with explanations for some of the questions depending on what) or being able to speak with a person to help do the form. It would be nice for some or all of the questions to have an option to write something not just pick multi choice, or to say I don't know or not sure or it depends or sometimes a and sometimes b or whatever! 

That's all I can think of for now. Thank you for asking, I'm glad this is being looked at.