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‘Lil bit of a mental health thread. Not because I’m in trouble (at the moment), but because I’m worried about turboscrewed public MH services are. Lockdown was hard. I was on my own, with WhatsApp, Zoom, Twitter, PSN, and occasionally Twitch for company.
Unsurprisingly this did not work well for me. I was so deeply lonely at times it was unbearable. To top things off, thoughts started to get a little darker than most people would be comfortable with. With no end in sight, I got in touch with my GP who, after asking a series...
of questions told me to SEEK IMMEDIATE HELP. Turns out I wasn’t very well. I called the numbers I was told to call, then told to wait a bit for a person to give me a ring. A week or so later I had a call back and was told a psychiatrist would call ‘in a few weeks’ to...
discuss treatment, and that I should keep a log of how much I was drinking. I was also told that if I wanted NHS therapy, it would be at least nine to twelve months before I could get some. And that’s with *pre* COVID demand. God knows how long the wait is now.
A few weeks roll by, and I get a call from a lovely doctor who suggests all manner of anti depressants. Rather irksomely, they do not sit well with me at all and I can’t go on them. So she says someone’ll get in touch in a few weeks to talk again.
A month or so rolls on, and I get another call. “The doctor would like to discuss medication.” I tell them that for reasons meds aren’t happening. I’m told that if I want therapy I know how long the wait is, and that I’m best going private. I agree, and...
I’m told my case is closed. NHS job finished. From the middle of June to last week, I’m told that the only feasible option for help within the year (ish) is to go private. How many people can afford that? How many people know they can do it? Just how underfunded is...
the NHS’ mental health service right now? There’s a pandemic happening, and I won’t have been the only one to have things go south by a long shot. Does @MattHancock appreciate that when COVID’s all tucked away, there’s going to be a nation of severely mentally unwell...
people in need of help and none available for a YEAR?! There are those who can go private, and there are more who can’t. I despair at what’s going to happen next. How many will feel helpless, and how many will take a path they needn’t without any help other than ‘have pills.’
In the after times, when COVID is a distant memory, and we can see/hug/high five each other again, I hope whoever’s in charge looks at mental health treatment as seriously as it deserves to be looked at. For now, team, look after yourselves.
