"Postcode lottery"

Actively suicidal I was referred to bsmhft, I was concerned that as I'd previously struggled to engage and requested to move teams (they refused)that they would be reluctant to help. It seems I was right. Three weeks later I receive a letter asking me to make a routine appt with their doctor. When I rang,they said they were only checking that I wanted an assessment. She seemed suprised I wanted an appointment and said she'd email the team and let them know.

I rang back and told her not to bother as there was a genuine air of reluctance and I told her that's how they'd made me feel, the extra steps are so time is not wasted. She did suggest I try Mind which was a bit ironic as it was them that had helped me access a clinician in the first place who referred me and persuaded me to give the mental health team a go.

It took a lot for me to ask for help due to my experience with the mental health team. Mind have been the ones trying to help me through this interim period. While bsmhft took three weeks to write a letter. I may not be the easiest service user to deal with as I'm not used to dealing with people anymore due to agoraphobia and social phobia and my anxiety gets the better of me but that shouldn't mean I'm disregarded.

An over reaction it may be on my part but when you're struggling with things in general this reluctance was really not helpful and its made me feel so much worse. They should have just said no to the referral instead of dragging it out hoping I'd drop out which I obviously did.

In contrast a family member previously had a fantastic response from a different team within bsmhft so it really does feel like a postcode lottery or maybe it's the person either way for me personally I wish I'd never asked for help.