WHAT ABOUT US? | TIPS FOR ALL THE MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES WHO ARE FAILING US

Oh, what about us?
What about all the plans that ended in disaster?
What about love? What about trust?
What about us?

P!nk: What About Us

Over six years ago, I actually wrote a blog post of a similar theme and inspired by the exact same song (P!nk: What About Us – which you can listen to here) that led to this post too (you can read that post here), so I was in two minds as to publishing this. Eventually, however, I recognised that there has been a huge increase in the blog’s readership since then, and so it’s incredibly likely that there’ll be a lot of people out there who actually haven’t seen, heard of, or read that piece. I also realised that I have a lot of new ideas and experience on this topic, so it’s likely not going to be much of a repeat at all...

ABANDONMENT & HOW TO COPE WITH IT | IN COLLABORATION WITH CATS PROTECTION

“When you feel abandoned, don't let painful feelings fester. Instead, use them as a catalyst to grow and to become more compassionate.”

Amy Morin

So, collaboration number two with the wonderful Cats Protection – this time, however, the post is in partnership with the charity on a national level rather than with my local Tyneside Adoption Centre (the collaboration with which, you can read here). So, as I mentioned in that piece, the Winter Campaign theme for Cats Protection this year is ‘abandonment’ and the reason for this (which I don’t think I mentioned in the other post) is that cases of abandonment of cats have massively risen by over 30%! Additionally, Cats Protection have found that those cats spend on average, around 39 days in the care of the Charity before finding a ‘furever’ home. With donations of as little as £5 feeding a cat – and last year, they helped around 500 cats per day! – in the Charity’s care for 25 days (other funding equivalents are that £15 would cover worming treatment for three cats, and £20 would fund ten blankets to keep the cats warm and safe); this Winter Campaign is aimed at raising funds as well as awareness of this hugely important issue. Now, to bring this Campaign into relevance for the typical content of I’m NOT Disordered, I thought I’d use this post to write about how to cope with the largest instance of abandonment that I think a psychiatric service user can experience, feeling abandoned by mental health services…

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MAKING A COMPLAINT

“At times it is what we do not say, or not saying a thing, that says a lot about us.”

Mokokoma Mokhonoana

I actually really struggled to find a quote for this post, and it made me worry that it was because it’s a really negative topic – complaining – and that made me worry that perhaps it’s something that really shouldn’t be the centre of an entire blog post… If you know me as a Blogger, then you’ll know that I’m all about being honest and keeping things real; and so, inspired by a previous post (which you can read here) this feels like a subject I should cover because – let’s be honest – it’s no great rarity for professionals (not exclusively psychiatric staff) to be in the wrong in some way; especially when it comes to a mental health related situation…

I’VE BEEN DISCHARGED!!! | EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES

June 12^th 2020, I was discharged from my Community Mental Health Team (CMHT) after being under their care (on and off) for eleven years! Now, I’m very aware that with my audience being so big there are readers who don’t have a lot of insight into mental health services and therefore may not appreciate just how big an achievement discharge is. And that is the aim of this blog post – to provide insight and to educate readers about mental health services…

You can be referred to Services in various ways…

I was eighteen when I was first allocated a Community Psychiatric Nurse (CPN); I was sort of lucky in the way I first came into contact with Services because I didn’t have to be referred and sit on a waiting list for months on end. However, I was definitely unlucky too, in that I was only put under the care of the CMHT because I had attempted suicide and been sectioned under the 1983 Mental Health Act, and apparently the automatic aftermath of being sectioned is that you’re allocated a CPN upon discharge.

I recognize my luck in the situation because I know of the many instances where people have been referred to their CMHT through their GP and have then had to sit on a lengthy waiting list. The saddest thing about the waiting lists is the fact that all too often, the person’s mental health deteriorates to the point where they attempt or succeed at committing suicide. This happens for a number of reasons, but the main one is that there’s often the development of feelings of hopelessness and a conviction that Services don’t care enough about the person to rush through their referral through.

BUT AM I READY TO BE DISCHARGED? | DISCHARGE FROM MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES | IN COLLABORATION WITH CUMBRIA, NORTHUMBERLAND, TYNE & WEAR NHS FOUNDATION TRUST | AD

This post may come as a shock to some people but it’s actually something that’s been talked about behind-the-scenes for about two months now and I just hadn’t told anyone it was a topic of discussion amongst me, my Community Psychiatric Nurse (CPN), and the rest of the Community Mental Health Team (CMHT).  As part of these discussions, my CPN suggested I write a blog post about discharge from mental health services; the technicalities behind it, the thoughts and feelings around it, the importance of it, and advice I’d give to others going through the process.


WHY I STILL NEED THERAPY

So, the talk about discharge actually came up when I got a new CPN; she was asking me what I thought I needed to do and what she could do for me to help me be ready to be discharged from services, and I told her that there’s still a lot to talk about around the abuse. You’d think that somewhere among all of these blog posts would have been the point where I’d worn out talking about the abuse but actually, I’m very short of that mark. And I think that’s because the most detail I’ve ever gone into it about it was to the Police; and for all their amazing work, they aren’t the best people to support someone with that. For them, it’s all about the technicalities in using the proper words – who cares about the words that make you uncomfortable or that you find triggering, you better be prepared to talk like you’re in a Biology class(!) – and naming absolutely everywhere and everyone that was even remotely involved. Now that that interview is over, all I can do publicly is say at one point in my life it happened… I can’t tell you his profession or the location of it because people will easily guess – my point with this though, is that, if you can guess from just those details then maybe that says more about him than it does about me oversharing! And there have been so many times when those details have been relevant to blog posts and I’ve just had to bite my tongue! So, having the ability to tell one person absolutely everything would be so refreshing and comforting that I feel it’s the one necessity missing for my mental health recovery. I have the support system, I have a positive attitude, I have safe coping mechanisms… all of that isn’t the answer if you haven’t worked on the root cause though.