Have you ever felt let down by the medical profession?

[BNCfan]

Back in October I was suffering free floating anxiety attacks which were so bad I was suicidal. I went to my local hospital, one of London's leading teaching hospitals, at 1:30 am one Sunday morning and asked to see one of the emergency psychiatric team. I was desperate. The nurse who saw me made it clear he had no intention of even talking to me and discharged me within 2 minutes, leaving me to come home to an empty flat feeling even more desperate than I had been before I visited the hospital I made an official complaint, which the hospital have supported and I have been asked by the head of the psychiatric department to get back to her in a weeks' time with ideas on how they can improve their approach to and support of anxiety sufferers.

I have plenty of ideas and the lady concerned is keen to hear my views. I told her I sadly wasn't alone in my experience and that it was time people with anxiety problems were taken seriously. I would be grateful if any of you who feel you have not received the treatment you deserved and have been left feeling desolate, desperate and 'abandoned' by members of the psychiatric profession would add to this post with your own experiences - especially stating how you felt as a result of the 'treatment' you received. No real names obviously, although your local area might be useful, as I think much of this is a 'post code' issue. This might just be a chance for us to improve emergency hospital care for anxiety sufferers.

I hope some of you will feel able to add your experiences to this posting.

Many thanks, Helen

[lilly-lou]

I have had bed experiences of my local MHT, I was basically taken off their list because I couldn't attend the appointments when at the time I was severley agoraphobic. I got told that nobody would come to visit me at home as going to the appointments were part of the therapy and to a certain degree they are right but I also got told to do things in baby steps, well my first step was to try and get to the garden gate so how the hell was I meant to get to an hr long appointment! I at least thought that somebody would come out and at least gain my trust but no so I was left with no support and no therapy.

also they need to look at where they offer the therapy as usually you are stuck in a small room up stairs and quite a long walk to get to, this puts some people off as feeling trapped especially when suffering from agoraphobia or panic is a huge problem. You can tell a lot of the professionals have never suffered themselves

Hope some of this helps

[BNCfan]

Thanks for responding to my post Lilly-Lou - sorry to hear about your experience. I know we're not alone, but people seem reluctant to respond to this thread. I'm surprised, as I've often read on this forum about how unhappy other anxiety sufferers have been with their insensitive treatment at the hands of the NHS. Thanks anyway. If everybody is afraid to stand up and speak out, they only have themselves to blame if things don't change.

[Cathy V]

Helen , why not just give people time to reply as im sure they will. Maybe not so many people as you think have had bad experiences so perhaps you have to respect that too. And when you say if they cant be bothered to speak out then things wont change, well what exactly are we supposed to do to support your cause...sign a petition? or are you going to print off the replies for someone to read? im a little confused as to what you want from us, sorry.

Cath :)

[BNCfan]

Hi Cath,

As I'd read on NMP quite often about sufferers feeling their anxiety hadn't been taken seriously by the psychiatric profession, I just wanted to be able to quote to the head of the psychiatric department at my local hospital some anonymous examples of how anxiety sufferers felt they had been let down and how they would like to have been treated. Maybe the rest of the country isn't so bad and it's a London thing. Certainly a lot of people here are finding their anxiety worries dismissed and not taken seriously.

I'm feeling very low myself at present, so perhaps I'm not making myself clear and don't have the energy to bother anymore.

Helen

[Cathy V]

Helen, sorry you're so diasppointed. Perhaps its that the people youve read about feel let down by their doctors rather than the psychiatric profession? After all, if people have got as far as being referred to a psychiatrist then whoever referred them is doing their job. Its the doctors who dont show much interest that maybe the problems lay with.

You're obviously angry at how you were treated in A&E, and like you ive also read on here about this happening to others, and as i said before, give it some time and im sure you will get more replies.

Hope you're feeling better soon xxx

[Jabba]

my doc was useless. I knew my mind and i kniw i was very much on the verge of suicide but he jsut prescribed anti-depressants. A CBT lady who had seen me had phoned him and urged him to send me to somoene else and he refused. The next day i attempted suicide.

After that their was a team in place to help. I wont see that Dr again...

[BNCfan]

I'm really sorry to hear about your experience Jabba, that was awful. There are so many doctors and other psychiatric professionals, such as A & E psychiatric nurses, who have absolutely no idea how to handle people in crisis. I have often felt close to suicide as a direct result of the inconsiderate 'treatment' I have received at the hands of these people. I hope you are now getting the help and treatment you need from the team which was brought in to help you. Thanks for taking the time to add your experience to this post.

[jm007]

I have had bed experiences of my local MHT, I was basically taken off their list because I couldn't attend the appointments when at the time I was severley agoraphobic. I got told that nobody would come to visit me at home as going to the appointments were part of the therapy and to a certain degree they are right but I also got told to do things in baby steps, well my first step was to try and get to the garden gate so how the hell was I meant to get to an hr long appointment! I at least thought that somebody would come out and at least gain my trust but no so I was left with no support and no therapy.

also they need to look at where they offer the therapy as usually you are stuck in a small room up stairs and quite a long walk to get to, this puts some people off as feeling trapped especially when suffering from agoraphobia or panic is a huge problem. You can tell a lot of the professionals have never suffered themselves

Hope some of this helps


I am sorry to hear your experience...The good psychiatry team should come to your home and help you from there rather than expecting you to come to the hospital...It's good for some patients to attend the surgery if their symptoms are not severe...In your case that wasn't the case...

There is nothing wrong to contact the trust...it will improve the services...

hope you get better services ....

J

[jm007]

Back in October I was suffering free floating anxiety attacks which were so bad I was suicidal. I went to my local hospital, one of London's leading teaching hospitals, at 1:30 am one Sunday morning and asked to see one of the emergency psychiatric team. I was desperate. The nurse who saw me made it clear he had no intention of even talking to me and discharged me within 2 minutes, leaving me to come home to an empty flat feeling even more desperate than I had been before I visited the hospital I made an official complaint, which the hospital have supported and I have been asked by the head of the psychiatric department to get back to her in a weeks' time with ideas on how they can improve their approach to and support of anxiety sufferers.

I have plenty of ideas and the lady concerned is keen to hear my views. I told her I sadly wasn't alone in my experience and that it was time people with anxiety problems were taken seriously. I would be grateful if any of you who feel you have not received the treatment you deserved and have been left feeling desolate, desperate and 'abandoned' by members of the psychiatric profession would add to this post with your own experiences - especially stating how you felt as a result of the 'treatment' you received. No real names obviously, although your local area might be useful, as I think much of this is a 'post code' issue. This might just be a chance for us to improve emergency hospital care for anxiety sufferers.

I hope some of you will feel able to add your experiences to this posting.

Many thanks, Helen

Hi Helen

I think the opportunity you have is fantastic ...the good thing is you can make a difference by giving your ideas...can you let me know what they are...it will useful for me to think about putting it in to practise too...

well done...

The problem is anxiety attack is not seen as an emergency and can usually be managed with Breathing techniques....

What do you all think is the best way to manage anxiety attacks when you get to the A/E??

[Panic08]

i feel quite let down by my gp, i started suffering panic attacks in jan of this year and went to the doctors, at the time i was unaware of what was actually wrong with me and my doctor just told me to start going out and put me on medication to see how things go, but a couple of weeks later things had got worse and i became agoraphobic, from that point onwards i feel like i've recieved no help at all! she told me on another appointment that she would contact the local mental health team well this was back in june i've still not heard anything, i ended up having to have a private consultation with a psyc. who said if i had recieved treatment when it first started i maybe could of over come it but now it's progressed like it has i need sme CBT treatment, i had more from this doctor in an hour and half than i had in all my appointments through the year! and when i went to my docors this week, she added to my anxiety by saying i'd put on weight and offered some active service with a local gym, it was my mum (who was with me) who had to point out that i should concetrate on doing one thing at a time, which would be trying to get out, than attending a gym i'm clearly not gonna get to when i'm agoraphobic!, i can't comment on mental health or a/e because i've never attended but in terms of my gp i just feel as though anxiety is overlooked :(

[BNCfan]

[quote=jm007;431696]

" .... anxiety is not seen as an emergency and can usually be managed with Breathing techniques...."

With respect jm007 there are levels of extremely high prolonged periods of anxiety for which "breathing techniques" are completely unhelpful and quite frankly, useless. I write with 55 years experience of anxiety. I agree that they can be helpful for panic attacks, but when the root cause is PTSD or other responses to serious trauma I have never found them to be of any help whatsoever.

I've been too unwell to work on my report to my local hospital this last week, but will address it fully when I feel better.

[Cathy V]

Helen, yes it feels awful when nobody takes you seriously, but are you known to them at this hospital? I mean do they know that you are an anx sufferer and have you gone there asking to see emergency psychiatrists before? You say you went there because you were suicidal but you didnt get to actually see anyone and you went back to your flat. So what did help with the suicidal feelings...did you talk yourself out of it? So you obviously have your own coping skills...i would say you do after 55 years anyway...and you are still here. Im just an apprentice with 33 years under my belt!

Ive never been in the unfortunate position of wanting to take my life because of anxiety. Ive been very scared at times...trembling, teeth chattering sobbing scared, but never suicidal. That's depression not anxiety, and needs to be addressed as such.

Take care
Cath xxx