K
Kate
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- Joined
- Apr 24, 2008
- Messages
- 4
Hi,
I'm posting on behalf of my brother (with his permission).
He's 31 and has had severe depression and anxiety for the last 12 or so years and finds it near impossible to leave the house, except to go to the local shops. He is a very intelligent and caring person, who wants to get better - but seemingly, there's no one there to support him with this.
To cut a very long story short.... he had a psychiatrist probably about 7 years ago for the first time, after only receiving support form his GP. The psychiatrists most helpful suggestion was for him to go and get a job as this would give him self esteem. At about the same time, the CPN's (who visited once) best advice or should that be order... was for him to open the curtains and then discharged him. As I’m sure people will appreciate, this really damaged him, made him lose all faith in getting help and made him feel even worse about himself etc. He understandably didn’t go back to psychiatric services for years.
He has now been seeing psychiatrist now for 2 years (which considering the way he was treated last time, I’m very proud of). This took an extraordinary amount of effort and courage. The first one was really supportive and referred him for CBT (even though he wanted talking therapy, but better than nothing)... but has now changed to one that is very off hand, only seems to care about his med's and is very unsupportive.
He had to wait 2 years for CBT. He had three sessions and was discharged for being 'too ill'. She was setting him goals like going out to socialise.... going to the pub... which for someone who can sometimes not leave his room let alone the house, seems highly unrealistic. When he tried to explain this to her, saying he felt like he was failing and could he have goals that were more realistic and achievable, she said "well if you don't want to do this, there's no point in you coming.... you're too ill for this... go away and make yourself better then we can try again" and discharged him.
Hmmm.. wasn’t the point of the CBT to try and support him to feel better?? If he could do this on his own, then he wouldn’t be there in the first place.
Anyway!!
know he's in the position again of being let down by services after building up the confidence to go back - and they've just snatched that away from him. In his words - this was his last and only hope - and now they've taken it away. He’s still waiting (after 2 years) for a CPN.... has been told if he wants talking therapy it will be another 2 yr wait and then he will only get 8 sessions. he feels in netweena rock and a hard place - he's trying so hard to seek help, and gets turned away or let down every time.
I’m going with him to his next psychiatrist appointment to discuss this with him, before the possibility of putting in a complaint.
I just wondered a couple of things...does anyone have any advice on what we can do? And also.... what is the current mental health policy that services are working too? I’d really like to read up before the appointment so I know where we stand in terms of service provision and what they should be providing etc.
Thanks
Kate
I'm posting on behalf of my brother (with his permission).
He's 31 and has had severe depression and anxiety for the last 12 or so years and finds it near impossible to leave the house, except to go to the local shops. He is a very intelligent and caring person, who wants to get better - but seemingly, there's no one there to support him with this.
To cut a very long story short.... he had a psychiatrist probably about 7 years ago for the first time, after only receiving support form his GP. The psychiatrists most helpful suggestion was for him to go and get a job as this would give him self esteem. At about the same time, the CPN's (who visited once) best advice or should that be order... was for him to open the curtains and then discharged him. As I’m sure people will appreciate, this really damaged him, made him lose all faith in getting help and made him feel even worse about himself etc. He understandably didn’t go back to psychiatric services for years.
He has now been seeing psychiatrist now for 2 years (which considering the way he was treated last time, I’m very proud of). This took an extraordinary amount of effort and courage. The first one was really supportive and referred him for CBT (even though he wanted talking therapy, but better than nothing)... but has now changed to one that is very off hand, only seems to care about his med's and is very unsupportive.
He had to wait 2 years for CBT. He had three sessions and was discharged for being 'too ill'. She was setting him goals like going out to socialise.... going to the pub... which for someone who can sometimes not leave his room let alone the house, seems highly unrealistic. When he tried to explain this to her, saying he felt like he was failing and could he have goals that were more realistic and achievable, she said "well if you don't want to do this, there's no point in you coming.... you're too ill for this... go away and make yourself better then we can try again" and discharged him.
Hmmm.. wasn’t the point of the CBT to try and support him to feel better?? If he could do this on his own, then he wouldn’t be there in the first place.
Anyway!!
know he's in the position again of being let down by services after building up the confidence to go back - and they've just snatched that away from him. In his words - this was his last and only hope - and now they've taken it away. He’s still waiting (after 2 years) for a CPN.... has been told if he wants talking therapy it will be another 2 yr wait and then he will only get 8 sessions. he feels in netweena rock and a hard place - he's trying so hard to seek help, and gets turned away or let down every time.
I’m going with him to his next psychiatrist appointment to discuss this with him, before the possibility of putting in a complaint.
I just wondered a couple of things...does anyone have any advice on what we can do? And also.... what is the current mental health policy that services are working too? I’d really like to read up before the appointment so I know where we stand in terms of service provision and what they should be providing etc.
Thanks
Kate
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