"Condescending, ill-trained staff."

I was recently assessed at the Town Close Clinic. I am a 26 year old woman with longstanding Mental Health problems and feel more comfortable with certain members of staff. But on the day I was not, I was seen by a nurse who quite frankly didn't seem to know what time of the day it was. During the appointment, the nurse was rifling through the mountains of papers on their desk to find a worksheet to give me. After 10 mins the nurse finally located it only to realise that they needed to copy it for me. The nurse never did this. When asking me questions about my wellbeing, the nurse was writing the answers down before I had even answered them and then had to keep crossing out what the nurse had put and replacing it with my actual answers. The nurse then completed the clustering tool and was deliberately scoring me low even though I was suicidal. As the nurse was wrapping up our meeting, the nurse had the audacity to compare me to their foot, Yes their foot! In that I would never get better, there would always be some signs of my illness (as there is the fracture they suffered 20 years ago).

The nurse then told me that I would probably not see a psychiatrist at all. I left feeling worse than when I arrived. I received a letter a week later saying that I was being referred to the wellbeing service. (I still haven't heard from them).

Because of this appointment, I decided to go privately to see a psychiatrist and was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and prescribed mood stabilisers and talking therapy. This will have to be through the NHS as I cant afford anymore private appointments so who knows how long it will take to see anyone and the quality of the service. I have been in and out of the mental health service for years and am sad to say that it is not worth the time or the effort to get to the appointments.

I don't usually leave reviews for anything but I feel so let down and want people to know just how bad the service is.