"Experience of Copeland CMHART"

The Copeland CMHART decided to completely disregard an Autism diagnosis which was less than nine months old at the time of my first contact with them in June 2019, choosing instead to use records dating from 2003/04 in a nonsensical attempt to assign a borderline personality disorder label. This was the decision they inexplicably reached after only one appointment; and the records that they used to justify this sorry excuse for a "diagnosis" were not only factually inaccurate, but were created when I was 16/17 years old, and during a period when, despite being a minor, I was under adult mental health services, which further calls into question the reliability and validity of said records.

Despite terminating the assessment for "borderline personality disorder" prior to completion, and later sending me a discharge letter which made no mention whatsoever of any kind of personality disorder, instead stating my diagnoses to be Autism, anxiety and depression, the CMHART as well as the ALIS team both continued to tell every external service they made further referrals to that I have a badly disordered personality, and in addition made various questionable assertions about my character to these other services. I was only made aware of this when my GP ensured that I received copies of reports and letters that I had previously requested from the CMHART, only to be fobbed off with half-hearted and poorly-constructed excuses as to why this would not be possible.

In the nearly eighteen months since being discharged from the CMHART, I have been fortunate to find Autism-specific support through a third-sector organisation and adult social care. None of the staff members with whom I have worked to date have observed any symptoms that could be related to "BPD" - this as per their own words to me. Mind-blowing what happens when services actually take the time to not only get to know but also to understand the service user, instead of merely assigning a label based only on prejudice and outdated ideas about how women/girls are supposed to be.