"Poor experience with MH liaison team"

I recently attended North Manchester A&E and asked to see the mental health team.

I had just come straight from the crisis cafe, who recommended that I attend. Crisis Cafe was wonderful and assured me that they would write a good note in the GMMH system with their assessment, alongside the previous assessment I had with them earlier in the week, so that this would be available to MH Liaison.

This was important for me as I was having mental health crisis, I am also neurodivergent, and it is extremely difficult for me to verbally provide clear and full information to new people. Especially so in such an environment like A&E which is incredibly overstimulating.

I have also since read online that MH Liaison do have access to all mental health records and as part of best practice they ensure they understand the history.

There was nowhere for me to wait in A&E so the triage nurse said to wait outside in the garden. They said they would tell MH Liaison I was there and they would come and find me. This did not happen. I received a phone call asking why I had left. I had not left.

When MH came they asked me a series of questions of which all this information would have been accessable on the system. This was demographic information. They also wanted my Dad’s contact number and when I said I did not consent to any information sharing with my family they tried to insist I provide somebody else. When I said no, that they do not know what I am contending with and that I do not want them to, they said that is because I am managing fine.

This is problematic on several levels. It is actually indicative of increased isolation, far from managing fine.

I explained that crisis cafe have written a note and that there are a series of notes explaining my situation. They said that their job is to assess me and I needed to speak to them. By this point I was so distressed I could not speak to them and said I wanted to leave. They kept saying -  speak to me speak to me.

They took me back to the desk and spoke to the person there. I again tried to explain about crisis cafe assessment and they said that they are not crisis cafe and I need to speak to them and tell them what is happening for me. The person on the desk just shrugged and pointed to the door.

I am very concerned that this happened. There has been at least one previous occasion where MH Liaison have spoken directly to the crisis cafe practitioners which has been imperative in ensuring I could access appropriate care. This occasion they would not even look at the notes.

A&E is an absolute last resort for me and it was not made possible for me to access the service. It is most important to understand and work alongside people’s individual needs. This was disregarded and the impact is that I have now exhausted all my options to access support.

I did contact PALs, who said apparently they did not know that I am autistic. They did, as I shared this with them. It is also in my notes (that they seemingly refused to read). It should have also been clear to MH professionals that if somebody is unable to communicate, there is some kind of hidden difference and they need to accommodate that. 

Although PALs were nice enough in their response to me, it was clearly a stock, copy/paste we understand how you feel reply, with no intention of ensuring things are different next time. 

The impact of this is that I cannot access emergency MH support at the hospital closest to my home.