"Sometimes great, sometimes not."

I have had cause to access Health In Mind's services a couple of times in the past year.

I've never had a problem in accessing their services and understand their importance within the community.

The first time I dealt with them the counsellor/support worker was everything you could hope for, kind, patient, understanding, encouraging.

I felt as if I was being heard and respected and I appreciated that.

Then a few months later I needed to access the service again, having gone through a bereavement.

This time I saw someone different, which was no problem for me.

At this time I was wanting to change things in my life, but after listening to me, I was told to "Just do it!"

I have been utilising psychiatric services for just over 20 years, if I could "Just do it!" I would have done it many years ago.

Unfortunately I got caught up in the bravado of the moment and was feeling quite positive, to the extent where I was told "You don't need our services, I'm signing you off".

At that point I stated "If you'd said that to me ten years ago you'd have rubbed me up the wrong way".

To which they replied "I know a lot of people say that".

Needless to say the positivity I had in that session soon vanished and I was left feeling foolish and not wishing to engage with their service again.

It appals me in retrospect that I was told the above.

That 20 years of mental health issues has no bearing on my life and I should just "do it".

I'm still angry about it, but I can deal with it.

What worries me more is the people who don't understand their conditions, who are scared and need someone to be kind, patient and sympathetic.

The idea that they could end up with the same person I had to deal with saddens me greatly.

I'm fortunate, I've managed to find another service to deal with and so far so good.

The worst thing though is that in my work we can give people information about Health In Mind and where I once would have done it happily, now I find myself hesitating because of my experience.

So, all in all, sometimes it's great and sometimes it's not, but certain people should remember, we are people, not numbers and what seems unimportant to you can be a real stumbling block for us.