Confused and let down by mental health services

Post Reply New Topic

I'll try to keep this as close to the point as possible although I have a tendency to ramble so I apologise in advance. Also, I'm not sure where would be the best place for this thread so I have just put it here as it may basically turn out to be a moan. Any insight would be greatly appreciated because I'm quite confused at the moment.

In January I was referred to the 16-18 mental health team by my then sixth form adviser, for problems with stress/feeling low/self-injury/inquiry into Asperger's . The mental health team met with me twice for assessment appointments and then referred me to counselling and closed my file, which meant they had to write a report of my time with them to send to my GP (first they asked me for consent to do this which I gave them). They were also going to send a copy of that letter to me. However, my parents don't know about any of this so I don't get their post to my house; they send it to the care of the school who then pass it onto me. However somehow that letter ended up in my school file and the mentor read it! At first she wouldn't even give it to me, only a photocopy of it and claimed it was not addressed to me...even though at the end of the letter it said: Cc Hospital File and Cc -insert my name here- c/o -insert my school name here- !

In the end I had to go and explain to my deputy head about it all who then got the letter back off the mentor and to me. Him and the mentor both said that they would never open my post but it was not addressed to me and only to the school. However I fail to see how the mental health team could possibly have FORGOTTEN to write my name on the envelope. How can you forget to write the name of the person the letter is addressed to on the envelope?! If it is true that they have indeed made that error then I am very angry with them because the situation caused me a lot of distress and my mood has noticeably been lower since that incident than it was for the few weeks before it. A part of me would like to contact them and complain but I don't really see any benefit in that so...I probably won't.

Also, as I mentioned earlier, the person who wrote the referral asked them to also screen me for Asperger's syndrome. The psychiatrist and psychologist never once mentioned it to me and it's not mentioned in my report at all. I am confused because I would have thought that had they ascertained that I do not have it, it would still have been mentioned in the section about why I was initially referred to them? Or am I just reading into that too much and the reason it's not mentioned is just because they thought I didn't have it? I just feel like they forgot about it or something...but then I feel like that it's their job NOT to forget about things like that so it's just me being silly...same issue with the letter fiasco I suppose?

I am really confused!

Have you talked with this mental health team about your concerns?
Also talking to your GP about what happened might have them help get the help you nee without getting messing about.

I can understand who your feeling about this I had many a f**k up with mental health services for years now.
Mental health care on the NHS, sorry to say is a second class service compared to physical health care.
Just keep pestering the professionals to give you what you what need and to listen to you.
That is what I done when I had problems like that

No, but the mental health team have closed my file now...so I'm not their problem any more. They basically referred me to counselling and that's that. Even though they don't even know about a lot of the things that make my life difficult because I only saw them for two hours and in that time lots of things just didn't come up, I suppose.

I think I may go to see my GP sometime soon, thanks for the advice.

I saw my counsellor twice and for various reasons on both sides we've then missed like, five appointments. I feel like counselling is just impractical at least until I finish school for the summer holidays. I have problems with my physical health too and also problems with hiding the counselling from my family and both of these things, plus extra-curricular commitments in term-time are meaning that I can't see the counsellor regularly and I just feel like I'm wasting their time, because I keep having to cancel appointments all of the time. It's really just not working.

Thats good to hear your thinking of talking to your GP. Ok I understand you had a bad experience with counselling.
Keep am open mind about talking therapies, from my own experience at times in your life its can help and at other its be useless.

Yes that's a good idea to wait until after school is finished for the year. Have you talked with your counsellor about the issue with going to sessions? Am sure they would help to work around your time. If you let your counsellor know what the problems you been having with going to sessions with them, am sure there be understanding.

Hello

firstly with the NH Aspergers falls under the whole postcode lottery thing I was diagnosed a few weeks ago, I also had a very similar path of being shunted back and forth to cognative therapy and also counsellors.

What solved my misdiagnosis was actually watching an episode of embarressing bodies on tv which is also on youtube, so I was surprised there were so many similarities between me and also the guy on the programe so I went to the shows website and tried the AS test I went to my GP and explained about the TV show and the score I got form the cambridge test, so he reffered me to the local nhs team and kindly wrote a letter explaining all the things I had tried like medication and therapy, unfortunately there wasnt a team in my area that were able to help with a diagnosis but my doctor applied to the partners care trust for funding for me to go to a different NHS region for testing.

between me going to my gp and getting an appointment to be tested had been about 8 months, but from the bottom of my heart please follow it through and keep your motivation going because the feeling of relief you get if they tell you you have it is a weight of your shoulders.

if you want to talk about anything drop me a message on here and I will do whatever I can to advise.

I have already been to a few groups and met a few local people with aspergers and its like a family I never knew I had knowing there are people I can relate to and dont need to feel like I have to justify my existance.