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Mental health care

Posted By Powerless

"Mental health care"

About: Lisburn Community Services

(as a service user),

I was referred to community psychiatric nurse and psychiatrist on reporting feeling depressed. I was prescribed anti depressants by psychiatrist and seen twice but not seen again by psychiatrist in subsequent 12 months.

Community nurse offered attending employment training which I didn't want. They never followed up whether I was safe after a year.

On reflection I feel the service was not interested or able to support me to find solution....I never reported feeling better so they don't know how I am feeling.

I believe they do not have enough staff resources/counsellors.

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Responses

Response from Conor Campbell, Senior Manager, Assurance and Improvement, South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust 3 years ago
Conor Campbell
Senior Manager, Assurance and Improvement,
South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust

Assurance and improvement

Submitted on 20/10/2020 at 13:48
Published on Care Opinion at 13:48

picture of Conor Campbell

Dear Powerless

Thank you for telling your story.

I am sorry to hear that your experience as a Trust patient has been negative.

Colleagues attached to the services relevant to you will review and consider how improvement may be made.

If you wish to make contact directly on 07715801634 or at conor.campbell@setrust.hscni.net to provide your details, we will be able to look at your individual journey and consider appropriate actions,

Best wishes

Conor

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Response from Christine Graham, Audit and Governance Facilitator, Mental Health, South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust 3 years ago
Christine Graham
Audit and Governance Facilitator, Mental Health,
South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust

I work as part of the service imporvement team for mental health services in the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust

Submitted on 22/10/2020 at 09:58
Published on Care Opinion at 11:39

Hi Powerless

I am sorry to hear that you that you felt mental health services did not provide you with the support you needed or adequately review your case.

I work as part of the service improvement team within mental health. Part of my role is to share learning gained from those sharing their experiences of using mental health services in order to make changes to improve our services.

If you would like to share more detail with me about your experience, including your suggestions for improvement, please contact me via email - mentalhealthcareopinion@setrust.hscni.net.

Thank you for taking the time to share of your experience.

Kind regards

Christine

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Response from Christine Graham, Audit and Governance Facilitator, Mental Health, South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust 3 years ago
Christine Graham
Audit and Governance Facilitator, Mental Health,
South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust

I work as part of the service imporvement team for mental health services in the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust

Submitted on 22/10/2020 at 10:45
Published on Care Opinion at 11:39

Also if you require further immediate support, you can call Lifeline free on 0808 808 8000. The helpline is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

You can also visit https://www.mindyourhead.info/ for information on other support services available or speak to your GP.

Thank you again for sharing of your experience.

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Update posted by Powerless (a service user)

Dear Christine and Conor (south eastern trust) Please be aware I did acknowledge your responses of 8 months ago but the Care Opinion moderator disallowed my post due to some inappropriate references.

As a follow-up to my original post, here is recently discovered information:-

The above referral was made by a locum GP because the database said anti-depressant may negatively act in conjunction with my heart medications. I was seen by a locum consultant psychiatrist who announced without deliberation that they were prescribing an anti-depressant. I started the anti-depressant.

It is only now I discovered, after getting access to my GP medical notes last week, that the locum psychiatrist wrote a report to GP about appointment and stated in conclusion that they were prescribing an anti-depressant but if GP had any concerns about possible contra-indications then GP should contact locum psychiatrist to discuss.

No-one from GP or psychiatrist ever subsequently talked to me about possible contra-indications.

So, what I take from this episode is that the two locums (1 a GP, 1 a psychiatrist) were not willing or capable of making an informed decision about prescribing. Furthermore, my regular GP to whom the locum psychiatrist addressed his report, never queried with me the issue of contra-indications.

It feels like there was a lack of, or breakdown in, real communication between these various doctors.

I feel fortunate that after several weeks I chose to not take any more anti-depressant because I did not trust that the psychiatric services were interested. I did not know at the time that the doctors had not taken account of contra-indications when prescribing, but the recent access to records has made me feel vindicated.

In conclusion, my concern is that the medical response to a reported depression may have resulted in a bad outcome and that this may have been due to poor communication. I did not explore with doctors at the time because I assumed they know what they are doing especially when I'm feeling depressed.

So, I really do not have much confidence in approaching locum doctors in south eastern trust regarding similar issues in the future. I feel that perhaps locum doctors have no investment in the post, and by implication no investment in the patient.

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