BipolarGuy
Enlightened
- Aug 6, 2020
- 1,456
I have been trying to access mental health support for years - ELEVEN YEARS.
I have made several complaints over those 11 years because various things have happened.
For instance being put on medication that made me worse. A medication I later found out has contraindications in bipolar.
Leaving me on a waiting list for 18 months with no contact, then removing me from the waiting list even though I hadn't seen anyone because my treatment had concluded!
etc
Finally I got fed up with going round in circles for 11 years with my local mental health trust, so I asked for something called an out of area referral - a referral to a mental health service elsewhere in the country.
I've seen my GP's referral to them, and I am SHOCKED!
In the referral letter, my GP says:
- Local mental health services are refusing to engage with me because I keep complaining.
No, I regularly speak to mental health services, including my care coordinator. But treatment is so poor that I've asked to go elsewhere now, after 11 years.
- I'm refusing to take medication.
Again not true. What I'm refusing is to be left on the starting dose for several months, even though the psychiatrist instructed my care coordinator to organise a medicine review within 4 weeks of starting the medication, on the starting dose.
- That I'm currently "euthymic".
Totally the opposite!
- That I take overdoses in response to the poor mental health treatment I perceive that I have been in receipt of.
If I had received better treatment 11 years ago then maybe I wouldn't feel like this, but I don't take overdoses as some kind of tantrum.
I've only taken 2 overdoses, besides. Once in 2009, and once in March 2019.
- The therapeutic relationship between me and my local mental health trust has broken down.
True, because they're so crap!
- That I only perceive that I've been in receipt of poor treatment due to having bipolar.
Where do I even start on this?!
I just can't believe it!
I honestly can't fucking believe it!
I didn't mention everything, just the main points I remember. But he's made me out to be some kind of trouble maker basically because I've had the balls over 11 years to stand up and point out that local services are crap.
He did not mention why I'm being referred at all: to seek a diagnosis, to engage in therapy, etc .....?
How crap can things be?
EDIT: As stated in a post below (number 15), I have never even met my GP who wrote this letter!
I have made several complaints over those 11 years because various things have happened.
For instance being put on medication that made me worse. A medication I later found out has contraindications in bipolar.
Leaving me on a waiting list for 18 months with no contact, then removing me from the waiting list even though I hadn't seen anyone because my treatment had concluded!
etc
Finally I got fed up with going round in circles for 11 years with my local mental health trust, so I asked for something called an out of area referral - a referral to a mental health service elsewhere in the country.
I've seen my GP's referral to them, and I am SHOCKED!
In the referral letter, my GP says:
- Local mental health services are refusing to engage with me because I keep complaining.
No, I regularly speak to mental health services, including my care coordinator. But treatment is so poor that I've asked to go elsewhere now, after 11 years.
- I'm refusing to take medication.
Again not true. What I'm refusing is to be left on the starting dose for several months, even though the psychiatrist instructed my care coordinator to organise a medicine review within 4 weeks of starting the medication, on the starting dose.
- That I'm currently "euthymic".
Totally the opposite!
- That I take overdoses in response to the poor mental health treatment I perceive that I have been in receipt of.
If I had received better treatment 11 years ago then maybe I wouldn't feel like this, but I don't take overdoses as some kind of tantrum.
I've only taken 2 overdoses, besides. Once in 2009, and once in March 2019.
- The therapeutic relationship between me and my local mental health trust has broken down.
True, because they're so crap!
- That I only perceive that I've been in receipt of poor treatment due to having bipolar.
Where do I even start on this?!
I just can't believe it!
I honestly can't fucking believe it!
I didn't mention everything, just the main points I remember. But he's made me out to be some kind of trouble maker basically because I've had the balls over 11 years to stand up and point out that local services are crap.
He did not mention why I'm being referred at all: to seek a diagnosis, to engage in therapy, etc .....?
How crap can things be?
EDIT: As stated in a post below (number 15), I have never even met my GP who wrote this letter!
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