Concerned & Confused About My Care/support

[Ollieclews]

Hello all, Just wanted to post for some advice and too see if anyone's had any similar experiences.

Over this last few weeks I have become more more confused and concerned about my care and support, so far this is whats happened so far:

• Had my first appt with Pdoc ended seeing their assistant or something, they were useless didnt review my meds or anything and me and my girlfriend left really annoyed as it was a total wasted jounrey (I told this to GP and she seemed annoyed)
  
• When I visited my GP she was very concerned about my care from the CMHT and the lack of communication as she knows nothing about any of my recent trips to a&e etc
  
• GP has written to my consulatant Pdoc to get an explanation on whats going on and to find out who they are as she thought she knew all of the Pdocs.
  
• My referral for Therapy and CBT was all approved and was due to have my first appt Friday just gone but they wrote a pretty horrid letter to me saying they can not accept me as im not stable enough and they think i need to stay under the care of the CMHT
  
• My social worker came to visit and dropped the bombshell that she was leaving and this would be her last visit and Ive not met my new social worker yet and really nervous about it all
  
• They've done me a refferal to a 24 weeks programme which is compassionate mind training group.
  
• My old social worker sent me a letter to say she has done the referral but she doesnt think they will accept me and also they will be discharging me if I dont get the refferral.
  

So Im really worried and confused that their basically gonna drop me and leave me without any support and I really dont know who to speak to or anything, feel like Im been messed around. And they all seem to be arguing amongst themselves about my diagnosis and chopping and changing it I just want a firm one!

So really dont know what to do at the moment :(

[catsmother21]

Hi sweets

It is horrible when things are chopping and changing with your MH team and I hope that your new social worker is good. With the referral for therapy, exactly the same thing happened to me years ago - they thought I was too unstable for therapy and while I was totally gutted and felt completely abandoned at the time, I can see now that they were right. I had had therapy a number of years before that but the therapist wasn't savvy enough to know that I was too unstable. I got nowhere and it did me no good whatsoever and most weeks it just made me worse and even more unstable. They are doing this in your best interests but it's bad that they sent you a horrible letter. They should have spoken to you, face-to-face, so that you could have asked any questions that you feel you needed to ask.

With the referral to the training group, I would write to the manager of your local social services and ask why you would be discharged if you don't get the referral, that doesn't make any sense to me.

Your GP sounds good and I hope that she can sort out what exactly they have planned for you as far as your care is concerned. Does your GP know how you are feeling about this - if not, I would make another appointment to see her to tell her how much stress and worry this is causing you.

The training group sounds good as well and hopefully that will help to stabilise you a bit more - so I really hope you are accepted for it.

If you feel unable to deal with all of this by yourself, I think it would be a good idea to employ an advocate - Mind and Rethink offer advocacy services. I used an advocate last year and it was the best thing I ever did as far as my care was concerned. They are totally on your side and are there to get your point of view across and to make sure that something gets done.

Let us know how you get on sweets xx

[autism-bpd]

i sorry this is happening. I am also confused about my support.

- my new ISVA (Independent s*xual violence adviser),emailing me saying contact the crisis team during the weekend. The crisis team are sh* because they don't understand me and judge me and raise there voice at me and have no experience in autism and tell me to do the things i do. She also said during the week to contact my nurse- now I am confused sounds like my 3rd ISVA doesnt want any contact with me.

- My nurse tells me to call helplines so i cant talk to her about how im feeling.

- Voice UK arent happy with whats going on, she thought the support were going on and then find out its gone down hill she isnt pleased. I am not under therapy. She is going to see if they can find me someone to see me who understands autism, not the autistic specialist in the NHS who i had runnings in and wont take me.

- R*pe crisis are going to there end said they are going to help me move. she spoke to her friend who works in the disability organisation and decided that they will help me to move over where they are

[starryeyesee]

Hi Ollie

I'm sorry your care plan is all over the place at the moment.

Your GP does sound supportive however. Your post was really clear to me...maybe you could print it off and give it to her.

I hope things get better for you soon

xxx

[lonelyheartemma]

I am in a smilar situation. I was on a 3-4 month waiting list to see a psychologist but havent seen anyone 8 months later, my social worker says they've probably decided they cant help me even tho i was never asesed by a psychologist. The cpn who gave me my initial assesment and the drama therapist both felt i needed a psychologist and a cpn but the psychologists who havent met me disagree. I do have a social worker but theres not much she can do and when i ask her for help she ignores it and doesnt understand why i'm upset the psychologist didnt write to tell me they werent going to offer me an assesment. So i think you have done totally the right thing there by telling your GP and her reaction sounds really positive.

It amazes me how they can decide someone isnt suitable for therapy and then discharge them, it seems to me like someone who isnt ready for therapy needs support even more than the people who do. if they can't give you therapy they can still give you a listening ear. I hope your new social worker is good, i think they probably have less mh training than cpns and psychologists tho some of them will have really good natural empathy and listening skills and that might be more helpful than training in lots of ways. My social worker is much more interested in practical things than emotions.

catsmothers idea of employing an advocate is a good one, i'm supposed to have one but they dont seemed to have assigned anyone to me yet but even tho they are slow and havent really done anything yet they do seem really understanding and its good to feel they are on my side. I know catsmother's advocate made a big difference to her, that was the reason i looked into it.

people seem to leave the mh services a lot, its very difficult because in order to talk about things you need to build up trust and a good relationship but so many people on here have posted about people leaving and it almost always seems to be very sudden, they don't give you much notice. my first social worker (who was lovely but didnt do much) gave me a couple of weeks notice before she left and when i was seeing psychologists and psychiatrists it seemed to be a different person each time. maybe the jobs are very draining mentally and they have to put their own mental health first and leave before they are in need of support themselves but there must be ways of smoothing the transition and giving clients more notice. when my first social worker left we had a couple of sessions in about 10 days and my 2nd social worker came to half the first session and the whole of the next session. It didnt really help but at least i felt people were trying to make it easier and acknoledging it was difficult.

Ollie i know its really horrible but you really are coping well

[Ollieclews]

Hey guys, thanks for your replies.

I think Im going to get an advocate like cats suggested (I start at my local Rethink group today so will speak to them about it.)

Autismflipper im sorry to hear your confused about your support too

Thanks for the advice starry I might do that

And thanks Emma, Im sorry you've had a rough time with your care too

I just wish they would all work together a little bit more and maybe we would get the care we need!

xxxx

[catsmother21]

Good luck with the advocate sweets - I hope he/she gives your mental health team a good kick up the arse! xxxx