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June 12th 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.