"A service stretched but patients are suffering..."

After a huge fight to get a home assessment, after being unfairly discharged (as I had been admitted into another hospital for my long term physical ailments) I was told by the psychiatrist that I had mild anxiety. Despite being told for the last twenty years by other medical professionals that I was depressed, severely anxious, agoraphobic and an insomniac.

I was then given a prescription for my anxiety, which when checked on another hospital's website for potential harmful interactions with the meds I am on for my physical ailments, declared a potential harmful interaction (and I have been told to avoid it).

I was given a load of literature to sort through my self in order to get further help outside of the mental health team.

All of it amounted to a waste of time.

The St Helens Advocacy Hub said they only dealt with people, ill with housing issues. Other Advocacy agents I approached for support said they couldn't help me as I was out of the area.

A supposedly "home help" leaflet turned out to be an alternate holistic therapy organisation, who charged for their services. I reluctantly contacted them about home visits and never heard back.

I was offered CBT (which I've done several times before and it has been a waste of time) but the NHS service provider said they did not offer a home visit scheme, when I explained my difficulty in getting to them. They could meet me at a doctor's surgery in St Helens but could not come out to my GP surgery in my own home town.

My GP put in a request for a second opinion assessment for my mental health and still I have heard nothing back from this team, who has completely destroyed my trust of the mental health services of St Helens and of the feeble help they offer.