"Assessment and crisis team at St Bernard Hospital/ ECT at Ealing Hospital"

I was referred to the assessment and crisis team at St Bernard Hospital - Ealing Hospital by my consultant psychiatrist and GP on an urgent basis (I suffer from depression and it’s not reacting to medications nor therapy, and I feel often suicidal). My doctors recommended ECT in their referral.

After 3 WEEKS I still had not received a call from them; so I went to my GP. He acted immediately and gave the assessment and crisis team at St Bernard Hospital a call. So they finally contacted me. I received a call from one of their psychiatric nurses, who upset me so much with his questions (such as how did I feel?; I responded I was suicidal; the reply was asking if there was something else?) that when I hung up I had to take medication, and last time I took one was more than 6 months before. I called my GP and was so upset that he called the team back to reaffirm that I had to be seen urgently. They told him that someone would have come to my house the day after at 2pm.

The day after, I received a call from the assessment and crisis team at St Bernard Hospital informing me that they had to put off the visit. I received another call from them asking me if I could go to the hospital. When I replied that I could not, the person asked very rudely what was the reason for that. I replied that my child was back from school and therefore my husband could not accompany me to the hospital; I started feeling very upset, so in the end she said they would have made the visit at home that evening.

After hanging up I had to take more medication.

A person from the assessment and crisis team at St Bernard Hospital, an occupational therapist, came to assess me. She could not understand basic mental-illness related terms, such as “ECT” (and she was supposed to be there because I had been referred for ECT! ), PTSD, EMDR.

Although I had been referred because my depression had not been reacting to medication nor therapy for more than a year, she started saying that I could have spoken with a good therapist they had, that talking about how I felt was therapeutical, etc. It was at this point that I asked about her qualifications, and I cannot understand how is it possible to respond to a suicide-risk mentally ill person by sending a person with such qualifications!

At the end, I told her that I had been referred for ECT and that, should the team decide that it was not possible to proceed with it, they should have refrained from contacting me again.

The day after I received a call from the assessment and crisis team at St Bernard Hospital, and they gave me an appointment for St Bernard.

My husband accompanied me there. We had to wait until 1.5 hours before a doctor came, since apparently there was a misunderstanding with the reception! Dr assessed me (again) and told me that he would have let me know what the decision of the team was on the ECT. He was professional and empathic.

Dr called me to give me the appointment for the preliminary tests for the ECT.

My husband accompanied me to the St Bernand Hospital, where two member of the assessment team came to pick me up and accompanied me to do the blood test, X rays, ECG, and to show me the ECT department. They were very nice and compassionate, as was the nurse at the ECT dept.

Then I had the full assessment for the ECT with two doctors, who showed professionalism and were very exhaustive. In view of the holiday festivities approaching, we agreed that I would have started the 12-sessions cycle of ECT late November. One of the doctors told me that, if after two days, I had not heard from the ECT department to confirm the date, I should have given them a ring. So did my husband and they told him that - given the absence of the relevant specialist! ! - I would not have been able to start the ECT for over a month!

Now, I do hope that I will manage to survive until then (why naming the unit “the crisis team”, since no one in serious trouble should ever contact such a place? ), otherwise they will have a lot to answer for. And even if I survive, why put up with all this pain in the first place, if it could have been avoided by simply acting upon the referral on time?