This Trust is really really awful. They will only respond to this posting as it is on a public site. Thy will say contact us on this feedback e mail and we will look in to it. They don't. Neither do they respond to complaints. Their crisis teams are dangerous and incompetent.Often when you call the crisis line it is an answerphone. Other times they will tell you to go to A&E where in 2/3 MH safe areas the CQC have found the places of safety to be unsafe. The Royal Free has ligature points. At Royal Free and UCLH they have NO nurse staff just security staff there. You can be there as a voluntary patient ( ie not sectioned) for over 12 hrs. Sometimes more. They make no attempt to find you somewhere to lie down as they would in physical health. Ring Camden crisis teams and you will rarely get a woman if you need one. My sister will only speak to female workers in crisis as she has a history of abuse. When she is very unwell a male crisis worker will trigger her symptoms making her more suicidal. C&I know this and they say on other sites that they always direct to a female worker when no crisis team woman available but when you ring they just say no women available. I have challenged them and they just say basically, tough - go to A&E. They don't come out to people at night or even in the day if you have not been formally referred. You are meant to be able to refer yourself but try it and they will still direct you to A&E which is an awful place to be in a MH crisis. They will respond here as if this is an anomaly. It is not. It is the norm for this Trust and even CQC acknowledge this now in report of June 2016. Someone in our carers group said the Samaritans should be given the night time support role instead of this team - in fact that is what the crisis team members often say 'ring the Samaritans'. I don't know anyone who thinks there is a crisis service in Camden and in our carers group we have lost people to suicide because the crisis team that gatekeeps beds couldn't find one in time.
"Access to Crisis Support"
About: Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust London NW1 0PE
Posted via nhs.uk
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