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Access to mental health services

Posted By Potemkin

"Access to mental health services"

About: Ealing Hospital / Accident and emergency West London NHS Trust

(as a parent/guardian),

I tried to help my daughter access mental health services. It was difficult to find the right service online. My daughter made contact and had an assessment and was referred to another service which meant another phone assessment- she was told she would be contacted in 2 weeks but she had to follow it up after over 2 weeks and was told it would be longer due to Christmas holidays. She was getting more and more desperate and it resulted yesterday in her calling me to say she felt scared that she might take her own life. I took her to Ealing A&E, she was an urgent case but if was difficult waiting in a full waiting room with an agitated crying young woman. I thought at one point she might walk out. It would be helpful if there was a quiet place in the waiting area. Once we were seen (about an hour) things moved quickly and well. We now have a plan and a promise we will hear back on Monday. It feels too hard to access these services if you are vulnerable. I had been scared before about taking my daughter to A&E as I thought she may be admitted and we would lose control. She was treated brilliantly with understanding and inclusion. She already feels more positive and so do I.

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Responses

Response from Sue Fenwick Elliott, Head of Patient Experience, London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust 6 years ago
Sue Fenwick Elliott
Head of Patient Experience,
London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust

Submitted on 09/01/2018 at 18:51
Published on Care Opinion on 10/01/2018 at 10:05

Thank you for taking the time to share this very helpful feedback.

There is a quiet room for distressed patients in the Ealing A&E Department. I am sorry that this was not offered to your daughter. I am sure it only added to her distress to have to wait in a busy waiting room. If you would like us to follow this up on your behalf, please contact the PALS team on 020 8967 5221 or LNWH-tr.ehPALS@nhs.net

I am sure my colleagues in WLMH Trust will be able to respond to your kind words about the care they provided to your daughter.

I am so pleased to hear that you are both feeling more positive.

Best wishes

Sue

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Response from Sara Kerry, Patient Experience Coordinator, Central Governance Team, West London NHS Trust 6 years ago
Sara Kerry
Patient Experience Coordinator, Central Governance Team,
West London NHS Trust

Submitted on 26/01/2018 at 14:36
Published on Care Opinion at 15:14

Dear Potemkin

Many thanks for sharing yours and your daughters’ story.

It is helpful for us to hear about your experience of trying to access our services and we do try to make every effort to help young people to get the right support in a timely fashion. When a child or young person’s need is urgent, we do recognize that this help cannot come soon enough. It is encouraging to hear that the care received through A&E was positive and led to an improvement.

We recognize that it can be an anxious and uncertain time when a young person’s behaviour or emotions seem to be spiralling out of control. We are developing our teams and support to help young people when they, and their parents, feel they are in a desperate position. By April we are aiming to have this new crisis team and pathway in place. We hope that this will improve the services we offer. However, it is only through learning from experiences like those of yourself and your daughter that we can ensure that we what we provide can meet needs, sometimes by avoiding the need to go to A&E.

If you would like to help ensure that there is a clear way of accessing support, that this is communicated to families and wider professionals and the type of support offered helps to reduce distress; we would be delighted to hear from you.

Please call 0208 3548160 CAMHS Operational Manager or our Service User and Carer Involvement Lead

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