"It's very difficult now to access help"

My experience with the Community Mental Health Team in Inverness in the past 2 years has been terrible. I have found that they've been very difficult to contact, very scarce and really quite dismissive of distress.

I was put on an Anticipatory Care Plan which I wasn't happy about, but I felt I had no choice. I was told that if I needed to contact the CMHT if I was struggling I could phone them. This turned out not to be the case.

I have since been discharged from CMHT and have had to deal with a relapse on my own, which was difficult. I also find the progression over recent years of the CMHT to focus more on skills such as decider skills unhelpful when in a crisis. These skills perhaps have a time and a place, but not when in acute distress where being listened to and validated might be more helpful. I have also felt like things were being done just to tick a box, like saying I'm on a waiting list to get support work, when I'm actually not. 

I have also found my experience of the New Craigs outpatient department not very good either. It's mostly a system problem with a lack of resources as all I get offered when I see a psychiatrist is medication. I would much prefer alternative treatments such as social supports and help with nutrition. I also find the guidelines for diagnosing an eating disorder outdated. It should not be a requirement to lose weight in order to get help with a mental disorder. I also find psychiatry behind the times as they do not generally looking into the bigger picture of what is going on for someone such as their environment, their health (such as the gut, hormones, toxins) and what can be done to get to the root cause of the issue. 

The mental health system unfortunately seems to be in a desperate state. It's very difficult now to access help, and sometimes when you do access help in a desperate state you are turned away. It's an enormous stress to be in a desperate state and have nowhere or no one to turn to.