is my psychiatrist being honest with me

[Frings]

when i visited my psychiatrist recently i asked him if i could have a support worker such as a cpn. i was hoping for some kind of talking therapy/advocacy which i used to get from an occupational therapist a few years back

at the moment the only support i get is a 10 minute visit to see the doc every 6 months

i was told that the role of cpn's is now only to give injections of neuroleptics, and that they dont offer any kind of talking therapy/advocacy anymore. i was surprised to hear this as ive seen people on these boards talking about support they get from their cpn's

if i wanted any help my doc told me i should look in the yellow pages.. yes seriously that was his advice.. i suffer from paranoid schizophrenia and depression and the only help i can get is what i can find myself

im wondering if the health post code lottery might be at work with different levels of care in different areas. im in the south yorkshire region

 

[BORTU]

I am surprised that you can't get someone to help. Last year I had a bad time and I was visited regularly, but then I'm in the south.

Ask the reception at your GP, they may be able to point you to someone.

 

[Gail]

when i visited my psychiatrist recently i asked him if i could have a support worker such as a cpn. i was hoping for some kind of talking therapy/advocacy which i used to get from an occupational therapist a few years back

at the moment the only support i get is a 10 minute visit to see the doc every 6 months

i was told that the role of cpn's is now only to give injections of neuroleptics, and that they dont offer any kind of talking therapy/advocacy anymore. i was surprised to hear this as ive seen people on these boards talking about support they get from their cpn's

This does not sound right to me , for advocacy try your local PALS (try looking for them on your hospital web site)or even a Mental Health Advocacy service, PALS WILL help you with this. For talking therapy your pdoc should be a good starting point if not try your local Mental Health Team Trust. Dont know what your relationship is with your pdoc is, but if you are not happy with him you can change pdoc you know. You must get longer than ten minutes with him. You will have to do some work on getting help but surley the end result will be worth it. Do you have a care plan? if you do it might be worth seeing what that says.
Im lucky in my team in that I have a very good CPN who i see once a week, indevidual art thearpy twice a week(was once a week but she decidered to break it up into 2 smaller secions so it was better for me), i go on respite up to 5 times a year and homestart twice a week plus out of hours theres the Crisis team at the end of the phone and they have saved my life at times even if it has ment involing the police so im put on a 136 and sometimes yes this has lead to being sectioned, sometimes thats wot is needed for me. A lot of my support has come because i really have been thou the system sectioning wise, sucide attemps, SH etc. Im in the Norfolk area

 

[amathus]

I have a cpn who is seeing me every week at the moment, otherwise it is every two weeks...
she is away on holiday this week and I have access to a duty officer within the CMHT or a stand -in
cpn in her absence. In fact I have just spent half an hour with the stand-in cpn for talking support.
As has been said, if you have a careplan you should have access to a care-co-ordinator, who can be anybody
within the CMHT.
The information given to you about the role of the cpn seems a bit strange to say the least!
If help is not forthcoming you may have to do some work for yourself to establish just what you are entitled to.
By the way, my CMHT is in North Wales. I would have thought there would be some uniformity in how
CMHT's operate up and down the country?

Good luck!

meteos.

 

[amathus]

http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mentalhealthinfo/treatments/communityteams.aspx

 

[Frings]

I am surprised that you can't get someone to help. Last year I had a bad time and I was visited regularly, but then I'm in the south.

Ask the reception at your GP, they may be able to point you to someone.

i have to see my gp soon for a med review so ill take the opportunity to ask her about support services i may be entitled to

 

[Frings]

thanks for all the replies a lot of useful information there

i have to admit id never heard of pals before but did a search and found a web site and email address, it looks like a good source of advice

i dont have a care plan anymore, not since i stopped seeing an occupational therapist (part of the cmht) about 3 years ago

i never realised i could change my pdoc.. thats good to know and something i might consider as ive had some "issues" with him in the past

i got in touch with my local branch of mind the other day and made plans to see someone at the centre, im hoping they will be able to offer me some support