"Access to community mental health services"

Mental health services run by Leicestershire Partnership Trust are absolutely inadequate and harmful in my experience.  I have a mental illness that is going to be lifelong and variable, and unfortunately I have needed to ask for help from multiple teams over the years. I complained about a particular community mental health team and was able to get transferred, via patient choice, to one that was slightly closer to me for a fresh start with the City West team.

Well, it's been more of the same. I've been coping with severe depression for 6 months (more, perhaps) and finally had to ask for some support. I was honestly fearful of what could happen. I always try to avoid contacting any team because dealing with them is traumatic in itself. I attempted to contact my CMHT for some help, but no appointment was available for a month or more. So, I was told there was nothing they could do about it and recommended that I contact the central access point team. Despite me needing a medication review. So I did what they said and I rang CAP. 

The person I spoke to about how I was feeling was exceedingly unhelpful. They were not interested in hearing what I had to say. It was a rushed conversation with constant interruptions. I wasn't really able to talk about how I felt or what I needed as they just weren't interested. In the end, I was fobbed off with an email with random links, advice that didn't apply and a link to buy an app from the Google play store. I can't afford something like that! Anyway, the person on the telephone stated that they'd send an email to my CMHT asking if I could be seen sooner as I was struggling so much.

I spoke to a clinician from CAP on the back of that first call that assured me that she would also send a message to the CMHT as a best course of action. I wait a few days then call the CMHT to see if they got any message. Nothing. After some investigation, the CMHT confirmed that CAP did not do what they said they would and had not contacted my mental health team at all. I lucked out and got an appointment with CMHT that was a cancellation, otherwise they'd have left me alone to suffer with no calls or check up, for who knows how long. CAP had already dropped me as well.

Finally, after that early cancellation appointment and a sorely needed medication change, I called the CMHT same day as aforesaid appointment to confirm that the next appointment was happening and as per psychiatrist's agreement, it would be face to face. I have never had a face to face appointment with this team since I was transferred at the start of the pandemic. It's now September 2022. Everything was confirmed for the next appointment, everything was arranged and the appointment would be going ahead. Decided to call again today, just in case, lo and behold my appointment had been cancelled without notice. Not only that, I had been booked a different appointment and, of course, it was via video link. Not face to face. I was forced to accept this or wait for a theoretical face to face appointment sometime at the end of October. Of course no timescale could be given. It's almost like being fed scraps and being scorned for eating them when you're starving.

I feel frustrated, angry and incredibly, chronically let down. I feel there is no empathy and no interest in the wellbeing of patients on the part of LPT. Yes, part of the issue might be that the NHS is underfunded, however and sadly I can't control when my symptoms worsen and when I need support. If I could avoid using the NHS, I really, truly would. The mental health services in Leicester, in my experience, are absolutely atrocious and downright dangerous, and it seems to be getting worse nowadays. I can barely get through the bureaucracy of trying to secure appointments with a team of people who seem completely opposed to providing basic (let alone adequate) care. What if I am seriously at risk? Well, I was barely functioning, but whatever. What if the next person hasn't got the energy to seek help and no one checks on them? No one has ever checked up on me...

The CQC rating LPT has been given is not accurate in terms of the experience of people on the ground who desperately need help and are passed from pillar to post. All the while, their symptoms worsen and are exacerbated by the sheer number of calls they need to make to beg and plead for help. The callousness of the people on the phones, admin and especially clinicians that I have spoken to is incredible. I have had a psychiatrist tell me that because I hold down a job I'm - treatable, as though an unemployed person is subhuman or not worthy of help. I've had other psychiatrists tell me I -shouldn't be a mother-, or -get to the point'/'what do you want me to do about it?- while I'm talking about something extremely sensitive and personal. I just honestly don't know what I am supposed to do here.

I have complained and complained, and am met with the same stone-faced response and empty apology everywhere.

How is this allowed? How many times are people going to be fobbed off with leaflets and cancelled appointments and apps they can't afford? How has it become normalised to kick people off waiting lists to satisfy key-performance-indicators or cooking up numbers to make targets look good?

If I had the option and wasn't burdened with an incurable chronic mental illness, I would never ever contact these services again. I wouldn't recommend them to my worst enemy. 

What an inhumane system.