So recent life events dictate that I need some help. I've tried to get this help but the assessments (3 to date for different things) all say I'm not suitable as "I don't have a high enough score". Well I never realised it was a competition...anyway.
What must I say or how must I act to ensure I get myself the help I need. I know this is quite vague but I don't want an armchair experts opinion. Please email me for the rest.
No-body (from a medical profession) in their sensible mind will (/should) get involved with ANYTHING like this, via email, forum, or otherwise, unfortunately.
DrP
Stab someone*
*Please don't.
How do I get help then because every bodies telling me I don't need it but I clearly ****ing do.
There are 'normal' people on stw?
so you think you know better than a medical professional paid to do their job with qualifications and years of experience?
Ironically sandwich I am sharpening my knives at the moment...:p
Writing as someone who's dealt with depression, I felt at the time that I was not sufficiently ill to be helped by the NHS. I offer sympathy to the OP, but can offer no advice or useful experience.
Simplest way would be to pay to be seen privately, but obviously that costs.....
so you think you know better than a medical professional paid to do their job with qualifications and years of experience?
Pretty harsh, access to mental health services is severely rationed, so plenty of people who could use help are refused.
No such thing as normal, cloudnine.
You know the system does fail occasionally, jekkyl. A young boy was stabbed and killed in his home around here a while back, he was under the care of social services and warned them his life was in danger, but these "paid professionals with years of experience" knew better than this poor kid.
I know this isn't directly related to my OP but principal is the same.
It sucks slowoldgit, im sat in front of these guys just ticking boxes and informing me I didn't score high enough. Do they want me to lie???
I was in a dark place once, but didn't score highly enough for any intervention. But there are (certainly where I live) more pastoral approaches to support people that helped. Ask about this.
bradley, you aren't the first, won't be the last, you aren't alone. Though I don't have any answers.
Do they want me to lie???
In your situation I would.
Do you know my situation footflaps? Genuine question as some of it has been on ST forums as a means of finding a method of support or whatever.
I don't follow csb, care to elaborate please?
Bradley - sometimes the medical profession gets it wrong. Lie if you feel it will get you further down the process. Its far far worse pretending that there's nothing wrong so I applaud you. Have you been offered any support at all?
Nothing really. "Attend this assessment and we'll get you onto a course." 2 weeks later "you didn't score high enough in the assessment for this course so we cannot offer you a place sorry". All contact ceases from here until I take it up again with my GP and same process begins, been happening for the last 5 months.
Jekkyl -
so you think you know better than a medical professional paid to do their job with qualifications and years of experience?
Yeah mate, sage words there 🙄
I was hassling my GP and local mental health team for months before a suicide attempt in my 20s..
I knew I wasn't very well at all, and I'm talking thinking the devil lived next door level, not just feeling a bit sorry for myself..
I was fobbed off with a couple of valium and advised to get a good night's sleep.. After about 5 months of that I totally lost touch with reality and threw myself off a 300 foot cliff..
So Bradley.. my advice is to stamp your feet, cry and shout and scream if you have to
So Bradley.. my advice is to stamp your feet, cry and shout and scream if you have to
Say you've been thinking about suicide a lot recently and don't change your story - if that doesn't get your score up nothing will (bar hacking your GP to death with a Samurai sword, although I wouldn't recommend that as a first step).
As a first step 😀
Well you need a fallback strategy
Do they want me to lie??
I'm very confused.
The professionals in whatever field you're seeing will have a list of criteria which will help them to provide a diagnosis. This is a good thing as it aims to minimises human error and produce a standard. Without it, one doctor's diagnosis of depression might be "highly likely to attempt suicide in the next 24 hours" and another's may be "watched the first ten minutes of Up."
I'm not a doctor but I've read relatives' medical notes as a next of kin, and seen that they have score cards for many things. You'll be reduced to a number for how responsive you are, how self-sufficient you are, and decisions such as whether you require continuous, hourly or daily checking are made on the back of this.
Now, your OP says, paraphrasing, "can someone mail me in private to tell me how to buck this system?" Your only options other than perseverance, as far as I can see, are either to pay for private treatment or lie about how bad your symptoms are. Do you [i]want[/i] to lie, is that what you're asking?
If you believe that their decision is incorrect then you might try contacting you local [url= http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/1082.aspx?CategoryID=68 ]PALS[/url] to see if they can help, though if you've seen three different doctors and been rejected each time, you might struggle.
Some doctors are awesome, and some are dreadful. To an extent you're reliant on luck of the draw. Someone I know fell down the stairs and dislocated her knee recently, after which it kept periodically dislocating (very painfully). the first doctor she saw said "go away and come back if it doesn't get any better," which it didn't, and the second told her "you're fat, have gastric surgery." It took a third appointment to start the process of X-rays and diagnostics.
Oh yeah, good call.
I agree with the suggestion to try MIND.
Personally, I wouldn't lie about my symptoms. That could lead to problems, maybe the wrong treatment or something. I would be persistent about getting the help you believe that you need.
As per vickypea, definitely don't lie about your symptoms.
Why would you? Would you lie about your symptoms if you thought you had cancer?
It will only make things a thousand times worse.
They will eventually suss you out.
I have had a rough few years with two suicide attempts.
Get yourself a good therapist. I have gone through 6 or 7 and now finally have one I feel I can trust and which is actually helping me. Don't worry if you don't gel with the first one you contact, just get another.
A family member went through the same proccess as you OP. Totally kicked into touch because the "score" wasn't high enough.
We payed for private counselling in the end. It helped a lot, but perhaps not the right or possible option for yourself.
We paid for counselling for my wife.
If you don't have the money its not an option
But for us it was huge value for money
You asked me to explain. I was given the links to non health service support groups and techniques on coping with my situation. The coping mechanisms and talking worked for me, although the group stuff wasn't for me.