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MH charity can't/wont accommodate my needs

NAS96488

I'm having issues accessing a local mental health charity. It's funded by mental health social work, arranged by my mental health social worker and it costs a lot of money. It involves a worker coming to my house, and taking me out once a week.

They usually give me a different day and time every week, and it is often in the morning or around lunch time.  I asked for my appointments to be the same day every week at a set time, in the afternoon only. They decide these days and times without asking me, which creates extra work for me, as I often find they can usually they can offer me an afternoon appointment on a different day than they've given me if I ask. I have also spoken to the manager and explained the distress it causes me, but they can't/wont change it and their explanation for that was that they do shift work. I don't know why I can't just look at appointments available and just reserve them for the next few months.

I need to stick to my routine in order stay emotionally regulated. It's totally counter productive to give me appointments before the afternoon or on random days every week as  it has a massive impact on me and this is supposed to be for my mental health.

My mental health social worker said she would speak to them about it herself but even then nothing has changed and my local citizens advice only help with things like housing and benefits.

  • in reply to NAS96488

    I have PTSD too and have looked into EMDR, I felt that it wasn't suitable for me as the causes of my PTSD are complex and not easy to to bypass in the way EMDR seems to try and do. Shame that they are so inflexible about their shift patterns, it seems that so often the places that are meant to help cause more problems than they solve.

  • in reply to TheCatWoman

    It's not a social worker that comes to see me. Social services pay for a mental health worker from a local mental health charity to come out to see me and take me out, it is very expensive and it's the only service that does this that covers my area.  My social worker spoke to them about it and their explanation was their shift is never the same every week, they don't work at the same times every week. I've asked the social worker to cancel it because it's counter productive as the way their rotas work causes me to be dysregulated. For various reasons other than scheduling it isn't suitable; They aren't insured to take anyone out in their cars but I am physically disabled and can't walk far. It's nice to have someone to talk to but mental health wise they print out free documents on the internet that I could've found myself, and talk about changing my thoughts around the thing is I have PTSD so it doesn't work. I don't know what I'll do now. My social worker is referring me for a PTSD assessment at least and is looking into EMDR. I'll work on the online worksheets myself too.

  • Citizens advice has been hollowed out by becoming an off shoot of the DWP, they used to do so much more when they were more independent. It does seem wrong that your social worker can't come at the same time every week, if they said that they don't always have enough people to allow them to do that it might be more understandable, but them working shifts? People in shops work shifts and there's always enough of them around, so I think your mental health social work team are just being difficult for the sake of being difficult, I find this with a lot of organisations that allegedly help people, they seem to be more about making life hard for thier users probably in the hope they'll go away.