"Worst experience of my life "

The CMHT in York are a total waste of time. They made me feel significantly worse. They do not listen to service users, or try and understand their individual needs. Some staff are exceptionally rude, patronizing and abrupt. They insist on rigid dichotomies, overly literal interpretations and a bizarre culture which is judgmental and disinterested. Clinical continuity dosnt exist, I was refereed for an assessment based on a staff concerns, when I got the assessment they asked ME why I was there, I was unsure how to squeeze both my own concerns and those of other staff into a single response or where to start and the doctor just got really stroppy.

The partnership working is atrociously bad, if you are trying to coordinate your care with the jobcenter or you GP, or if you need them to speak to adult social care about housing needs you will quickly find yourself abandoned and lackadaisical staff will shrug and mumble at you that its got nothing to do with them.

If you try and discuss these things you are pathologised rather than listened to. Any issue you have will be invalidated or negated. If you shut down you are being resistant or disengaged, if you try and argue the point you are being difficult. If you really push and say "this is really bothering me!" they will discharge you under the guise of causing you distress but its obviously a punishment for not conforming to their idea of a willing patient.

It is clear that mental health services have tried to create a one size fits all approach, basing their judgement of people and their needs on how well they fit into what the staff think is a normal or right. Judging people based on occupation and functionality as defined by strict societal norms and not individual needs. Staff seem unable to exercise any introspection or self critique, and clearly engage in institutionalism by closing ranks, refusing to record problems and using bureaucracy to change goalposts. A personal favorite tactic is when they give you a limited range of choices then hold those choice against you, EG "weve decided to offer you a choice of 2 types of group therapy," later on you say "actually I think individual therapy would have been more helpful." Some smirking staff member says "so why did you chose group therapy?" If you try and argue at the time though you are dismissed as resistant and unwilling to engage . Staff exist in a bubble where only their interpretations are valid. Staff expect peoples mental health problems to fit into neat little diagnostic boxes. They think any complexity or confusion outside of the box is deliberate. They allow rank to overrule personal knowledge, on more than one occasions staff who had never met me overruled the concerns of staff who had worked with me for over a year just because they had seniority.

I have come away not wanting to be a part of society anymore, as I no longer trust anyone. You created the exact condition you accused me of, being unwilling to engage!