"I feel the whole experience has been horrible, scary, lacking dignity or respect. "

I took my husband to the Nursery Road (Huntingdon) mental health clinic to allay his worries about memory loss. He had commented a few times that he was forgetting things, I had not been concerned as it seemed like a normal forgetfulness but one day I thought we should go and get this assessed.

I feel that the clinic has not treated us with respect, I feel quite shaken up by the experience.

After the initial visit to the clinic an assessment form was sent to us, it had contradictions in it and I wrote to the clinic about these. The assessment also commented that my husband ‘was a quiet man who let his wife do the talking’. This is true: after over 30 years of marriage we have got into a way of operating that works for us and reflects our personalities. My husband is quiet and will often not speak unless he chooses to. I felt the clinic needed to know this, to understand him as I do.

At one point the assessment stated that my husband had poor eye contact, at another that he had good eye contact – I felt these contradictions needed to be corrected: my husband has good eye contact – he is an intelligent man who led teams of people, without good eye contact he would not have succeeded.

On our second visit to the clinic they gave my husband a list of questions which I was not allowed to see. I was totally ignored. I was interested, I wanted to see the questions but was not allowed to.

I have just had a letter from the clinic which has left me feeling very upset. This letter was to let us know my husband has a further appointment ‘and WILL take place at your home’. I thought the tone of the letter was very rude and this upset me.

I phoned the clinic earlier to complain about the tone of the letter. The doctor I spoke to did not have the right facts about who had seen my husband in the past. The doctor had had visited us at home, perched on the edge of the armchair and told me to stop talking.

I feel the whole experience has been horrible, scary, lacking dignity or respect. I’m scared and wound up.