"My case was ignored"

My son was referred by his GP to this place as he has suffered mental health issues for years and he had finally agreed to get help.

There was a real lack of professionalism in this practice. Firstly the staff here need training on empathy and mental health awareness as ironically they currently show they just don’t care and have no people skills. Maybe they have become tired of dealing with patients over the years and have become complacent, which is totally unacceptable in this area of medical practice.

Upon seeing the psychologist he was very judgemental and was dismissive of the answers to his questions. He just didn’t show the listening skills I expected from him, it was like he wanted my son out of the door. My son being mentally ill he tends to raise his voice at times like a child, which led to the psychologist telling him to leave at that point, when I expected him to tell my son to calm down and treat patients better and understand how to talk to such patients, when all my son wanted was to be listened to. It was very frustrating that the consultant did not listen and was not involving us in making up his decision, and he came across like he had made up his mind within 2minutes of my son being there. As a mother of a mentally ill son, I wanted to some advice and help from the psychologist but the psychologist was desperate for us to leave and was dismissive of my concerns as a mother. His behaviour was really disappointing and I am shocked that a doctor in this area of medicine is running a practice in such a way.

There was no interactive empathetic encounter, but simply it is clear the staff and doctors in this practice are seeking excuses to quickly churn people in and out of the door, and turn away patients as much as possible. They came across like they simply do not care about people which is absolutely unforgivable.

We will have to go back to our GP and ask for help through other means.