General Chat

having worked in the mental health field for nigh on thirty years I can confirm that mental illness has always been at the bottom of the pile and always will be - this is a disgrace when you consider that one in four of us will have mental health issues at some time in our lives - I'm one of the one in four myself

going Trust was the kiss of death for our local psychiatric hospital - we had an excellent accountant - just one man and an assistant - we had a healthy financial situation - we went trust and the local University Hospital of Wales, which was well in the red, took all our cash balance and left us broke - we then had a Finance Department foisted on us employing about thirty people!!!

before we went Trust our long term patients enjoyed group holidays, either in hotels or in our own holiday house - they had birthday presentsf and Chritmas presents - we had three mini buses to take them on trips or to appointments - these all went

I could go on and on - I am so angry about their treatment - now the hospital is closing and the patients are being moved from a site in a village where they have been accepted for 100 years, where they have every amenity, including train and bus travel north and south right at the gates of the site

where they are moving there are no local amenities at all - just one pub across a busy road, a lousy bus service in the middle of nowhere

imagine being an OAP and having your spouse in an almost unreachable place where a visit will take you all day to get there and back

Cuts, cuts and more cuts. In many NHS trusts there is still a moratorium for recruiting. Others may be allowed to replace staff, but not hire additional ones

Unfortunately its not just the Mental Health service where delays occur - early stage life threatening conditions are left untreated for a number of months. By the time the patient has had their first specialist appointment, the condition has advanced. In the meantime (some) patients have sunk into depression.

On a regular basis we read about mothers or fathers killing their children, people committing suicide, and violent crimes being committed by individuals with mental health problems, if this this survey by a coalition of experts, in the field of mental health, is true - is it any wonder these kind of things are happening?

The coalition of mental health charities, professional organisations, Royal Colleges and service providers say many mental health patients face "unacceptably long" waits for help.

The "We Need to Talk" coalition added that "huge variations" in referral rates and waiting times around the country were making people more unwell.

According to the survey:

One in 10 were waiting over a year between referral and assessment.
41% waited more than three months.
While waiting, two thirds (67%) feel they have become more mentally unwell.
Four in ten (40%) have harmed themselves.
One in six (16%) attempted suicide.

Care in the Community :-| was supposed to help people with mental health problems lead a more normal life - the figures in this survey clearly show that life is far from normal for many :-(