"We are probably only seeing the 'tip of the iceberg'"

From being told to make a self-referral to counselling by my GP in Leeds I have had nothing but trouble. I called the service on New Years Eve and the offices were closed despite the answer machine message saying they were open Mon-Fri except on Bank Holidays (since when has NYE been a Bank Holiday?).

I went through Primary Care assessment, passed onto Secondary Care and had a first appointment where the nurse turned up late, didn't offer an apology and talked to me like I was a 'number' not a person. The second person I saw was excellent and is still helping me today with issues I am having with the Psychology Department.

I seemed to wait an 'age' for an appointment, when this came through I was discharged by CMHT as I was changing services. Little did I (or my GP) realise that it would take four assessment sessions for me to be told that he was willing to offer me therapy but thought it would be more beneficial to see a colleague. This colleague sent an appointment through with 'trainee' in the job title which did little in the way of boosting my confidence in the service. I spoke with management and we agreed that we would meet to see if I felt that I had confidence in this therapist which I did and thought that I was beginning my therapy.

I had a bad time one afternoon and was in crisis, the support was non-existent and I ended up extremely disillusioned with the service. On my next appointment I was told that they were going to have a meeting about me shortly and then invite me to attend one with them. Two and a half weeks later my meeting took place, the therapist called me by the wrong name and said I hadn't made him aware of what I liked to be called (after four hours of assessment? ). He told me that I was aware that the therapy was not being offered and to 'top it all' said that he had never offered me therapy.

I now have to wait 8 weeks to go through another assessment to try and access therapy and they had to have a discussion with me in the room about how they can work it so I don't have to go back through the initial waiting period - surely this could have been discussed and sorted prior to the meeting?

I didn't want to go to the effort of writing all of this but having read the other comments I believe this does need addressing as we are probably only seeing the 'tip of the iceberg' and will find that the Mental Health Services are indeed in 'crisis' themselves.