"Unhappy with crisis team service"

What happens when you contact the crisis team? They tell you to contact other services.

They seem to offer no help, no advice, often saying "I've got an important call coming through" (perhaps to get rid of you). Or they say "contact your care-coordinator on Monday", often attempting to divert you to other services. What exactly do the crisis team do, I wonder?

I am a mental health practitioner with a Phd and MA. I have run my own mental health services in psychotherapy and I have never treated my "clients" in this way. Lets face it - patients or clients make money for the NHS. They are paid a lot of money for seeing you. Without you, they lose money. So perhaps "you" should be the focus, you should receive a good quality service.

Thank god that gp's will be taking control of budgets, because in my instance I would be slashing the budget of the crisis team, because in my opinion they do very little. Care in this instance could be dealt with by the a&e team. If a patient needs care then i think NHS Direct can do more for you. Your GP or out of hrs doctor can do much more.

So I would think about re-directing money away from this team and making more use of it elsewhere. It is certainly something i would do (not consider) - actually do, to create a better service for patients and relatives.

Yes, I have run my own service, served the NHS for 24 yrs and i put patients 1st because I have bipolar disorder and I am a service user also. Let us (service users) decide what has worth or not. I am sure GPs are aware of such anyway and I hope to see service re-structures commence ASAP.

As far as I am concerned I consider the services already experienced very poor. I have found the staff very judgmental, intrusive, over-familiar and offensive. I would not wish to be an inpatient.