"My worries that I was not coping was misdiagnosed"

I lost my Dad all of sudden and was unable to talk to anyone specially my family. Being at a menopausal age I was struggling to know the source and was getting irritated at the slightest reason, so I thought talk together would help me getting professional advise to manage myself.

The process was easy and was booked in fr telephone assessment next day, at this point I thought it could be just my details I wasn’t quite ready but thought it was too late and in my mind I was thinking I read somewhere that I might get charged if I cancel within 24hr so I went went ahead.

I got a call from a person who started assessing me for my mental health which I didn’t have any and I was a bit reluctant then I was told I have to take this assessment and then they would take it from there, I said no problem and we went ahead. All throughout I felt their tone was quite intimidating, they asked me questions about kids which I found irrelevant but went ahead anyways. Little did I know how these information would be processed.

Once we finished with the assessment the conversation shifted from my problem to my kids and my husband, which I never thought was a cause for concern anyways. I had words put in my mouth and soon before I knew this staff member said they would discuss the results with their supervisor and get back to me. I felt this is not what I called for and even asked what about the actual   reason why I called for and guess what few days later same person calls me to say they have referred my case to the social services to which I was completely shocked. I thought the services are meant to make you feel better and here I was feeling sick and anxious.

This is totally unacceptable, It was hard enough for me to digest how my and my family’s personal information was disclosed as it said only my information will be passed on. It all went to out of hands when I had only got in touch with them to get some advise for myself. I feel completely let down and a breach of patient confidentiality, I was completely misdiagnosed.

I wasn’t   even given full knowledge of how the information would be handled and what information would be shared. I was told “your info’ to which I thought it would be restricted to mine At that point I knew they have got this wrong but I wasn’t heard, as I felt the tone of the   counsellor quite intimidating like they had already made up their mind - they were more interested in the family rather than talking to me about my anxiety and helping me managing it.

All throughout I was requesting for counselling and that’s what I needed someone to talk to but this person seem to have completely missed the point. I am not very happy and am even more stressed out,   I haven’t made the right choice for the way I was spoken to, I believe this service is not for me. If they would have had the right conversation then they would   have understood me and guided me rather than following the computer protocol. Needless to say I will never recommend anyone to this service as I didn’t feel I was talking to humans.