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Unexpected lack of support

Posted By Mimosa

"Unexpected lack of support"

About: Crisis Mental Health / Out of hours team

(as a service user),

I don't expect to telephone a mental health crisis out-of-hours team to be told that is it my choice to attempt to die and offer no support to prevent this. It validates the thoughts that I am having and makes it increasingly more difficult to resist the urges. It also makes me feel that I am not worth helping. It saddens me that some duty-workers can let the wider team down as there are some exceptional duty-workers who take the time to listen and put a plan in place to support you. It is unfortunate that the duty-worker in question has actually said this twice to me on two separate occasions. It is not helpful and makes me feel like I can no longer access the service as it feels like they do not care whether I live or die.

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Responses

Response from Marie Bailey, Service Manager, Liaison Psychiatry, Decisions Unit and Health Based Place of Safety (136 Suite), Sheffield Health and Social Care 3 years ago
Marie Bailey
Service Manager, Liaison Psychiatry, Decisions Unit and Health Based Place of Safety (136 Suite),
Sheffield Health and Social Care

Submitted on 15/12/2020 at 10:17
Published on Care Opinion at 10:26

I am so sorry that you have not received the response you have wanted from the Out of Hours Service. If you want to discuss this matter with me further, please do not hesitate to contact me via our switchboard which is 0114 2716310.

Kind Regards

Marie Bailey, Senior Operational Manager.

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful

Update posted by Mimosa (a service user)

Thank you for your fast response. I do not wish to discuss this further via telephone as it worries me that it would affect my ongoing care and support.

However, what would be helpful is to communicate with the Out-of-Hours team my concerns and that it was not helpful to validate such strong suicidal thoughts, especially when the service user has a history of multiple suicide attempts. This in fact in my view, led to an attempt on my life and no care was received for this. I'd just like the Out-of-Hours team to understand comments like that were not helpful and risk assess the situation correctly.

Like I say, there are some exceptional workers within the Out-of-Hours team and do not want to bash the service as a whole. I feel there just needs to be an awareness and education of what would not be classed as helpful or productive in managing intrusive thoughts. Ending a conversation saying it is your choice to die is most certainly not expected. While I know it was my choice, I was asking for support and trying to engage with services and not wanting to be told to do what I was being commanded to do via intrusive thoughts.

Response from Marie Bailey, Service Manager, Liaison Psychiatry, Decisions Unit and Health Based Place of Safety (136 Suite), Sheffield Health and Social Care 3 years ago
Marie Bailey
Service Manager, Liaison Psychiatry, Decisions Unit and Health Based Place of Safety (136 Suite),
Sheffield Health and Social Care

Submitted on 18/01/2021 at 15:06
Published on Care Opinion at 15:06

Thank you so much for this feedback, I agree that it is important we learn from these situations in order to improve practice and the service we provide to people in Sheffield. We hold a monthly meeting in Out of Hours where we discuss such matters and I will be taking your points to our next meeting planned for the 21/01/2021.

If you so wish to speak to me, please do not hesitate to contact me on the numbers previously provided (reminder 0114 2716310).

Once again, thank you, Marie

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful
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