This is Care Opinion [siteRegion]. Did you want Care Opinion [usersRegionBasedOnIP]?
Care Opinion

Too Quick To Label

Story from nhs.uk

"Too Quick To Label"

About: Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

I feel i have a great understanding of mental health, no i don't work for the hospital but have looked after and worked with people to get them back to their normal self or at least feel they can lead a better life than they currently are.

Would I ever have a mental health problem? no I'm too laid back..... how wrong was i, it can happen to anybody and it has hit me like a train. To say i have as much experience as i have it came as a complete surprise and i deteriorated fast.

My GP has been fantastic and i am not over exaggerating when i say i wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her, however if I didn't have this GP and had to rely on the mental heath / crisis team things would have been so different.

I was told by my GP there was a couple of mental health nurses that i could see but she selected one who she felt i would get on with better and one who would understand. (hate to think what the other one was like)

I wasn't sure what to expect but did a bit of research as i know i am not the sort of person who likes to talk, from forums i was told the professionals are kind and will help you open up and will get you on the right track.

My experience could not have been any different, i was quizzed over and over again in a way that made me feel on trial. I would have said anything just to get out of there. In the end i was just saying what i thought they wanted to hear to that i could get my medication and go back to my GP for them to un refer me (if thats a word). I was labeled, a she knew what was wrong with me, didn't seem to care the doctor said that isn't the case, i mean what does my GP that has known me for years no, this woman in the 1st 10 mins had made her mind up.

I had not even got home before my phone went saying all my confidential details ha been passed onto the crisis team and that they were concerned. I tried explaining i was still on my way home and that i had no interest in using there services.

I just felt at the end by the evening and couldn't belive how much worse the people who are supposed to help made me feel. Then then next morning i was got out of bed by 2 strangers who claimed to be from the hospital who insisted on discussing my details on the door. I asked them in just for confidentiality. They left after 10 mins after realising they could not help but assured me my the 1st nurse would call me with my medication Monday. I had to keep chasing as this did not happen, i was then called in the evening to be spoken to like something she had stood in, be labeled again.

If you want to be labeled, spoken to like rubbish then involve mental health, otherwise keep your mouth shut and deal with it yourself. This way you might have a chance of getting through this fog.

Well done on making things 10 times worse!!!

More about:
nhs.uk logo
Do you have a similar story to tell? Tell your story & make a difference ››

Responses

Response from Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust 6 years ago
Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 15/03/2018 at 16:43
Published on nhs.uk on 17/03/2018 at 02:45

Thank you for sharing your comments with us. We aspire to provide outstanding services so your feedback is very important to us as it will help us to learn and improve. We’re going to follow this up with the team involved and we’ll be back in touch on this forum within 10 working days.

Response from Linda Rose, Head of Nursing and Patient Experience, Nursing Professions and Quality, Leeds and York Partnership NHS Trust 6 years ago
Linda Rose
Head of Nursing and Patient Experience, Nursing Professions and Quality,
Leeds and York Partnership NHS Trust

Submitted on 11/04/2018 at 15:19
Published on Care Opinion at 15:35

picture of Linda Rose

Dear anonymous

I am sorry to hear about your experience with receiving contact from the crisis service which has led you to feel worse in your mental health and reluctant to access future support.

The Crisis team do request that all referrals into the service from professionals, agencies or families are discussed with the service user and that they are made aware of this contact. In your case it doesn't appear that your agreement was clarified but unfortunately we are not able to make direct comment on how these events were managed in your GP surgery prior to your referral.

Without knowing the full details of your case it would seem that then based on the information given to our team from the referrer a decision was taken by the crisis team to make telephone contact with you straight away.

Each morning the crisis team have a team handover (called a multidisciplinary (MDT) team meeting which is attended by nursing staff, clinical leaders and medical colleagues. All relevant recent referrals are discussed.

It may be that based on the MDT assessment of your case the team took a professional led decision to attempt to see you face to face for further assessment.

It would be standard process to make contact with the service user first via telephone to plan a face to face assessment and only arrive at someone’s door, unannounced, if the team had tried a number of times to make telephone contact without success.

I don't have enough information to share with you whether the correct steps happened in your case prior to the crisis practitioners arriving at your home but I have shared your concerns with them and raised the issue of being further mindful about individuals feeling that such unexpected situations leaving people with a feeling that their confidentiality has been compromised.

As a service we would also have fedback the outcome of our assessments to the referrer which in your case I am assuming would have been the 1st nurse you mentioned.

As your posting is anonymous I appreciate that I've responded in terms of what our usual processes should be and within the response it may appear that a number of assumptions have been made.

To allow a fully open response in terms of our actions, I would encourage you to make contact with our PALS service to offer more information into your complaint so that if appropriate we could conduct a thorough investigation into what occurred in your individual case.

You can contact our PALS team on 08000525790 or palslypft@nhs.net

With kind regards

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful
Opinions
Next Response j
Previous Response k