Are you satisfied with your health provider?

Hi! Me and my partner are both wheelchairs users. My partner is paralysed and I look after her. We suffer from depression and insomnia. We have no help at all. We buy sleeping pills Zapiclone from the internet. They used to be OK but the recent deliveries are fake. I tired and depressed. Peter and Kathy Newham London

I attend a public health mental doctor about every 3 months;  it can be any doctor and usually it is a young doctor of  foreign nationality; they do not show any real interest and they have told me to access counselling privately, which I do; they give a prescription to buy medication.  The counsellor just likes to talk about current affairs or about himself and his family and grandchildren; I usually have to try to get his attention; I am 75 myself so it is understandable. I do not think it is possible to improve medical provision without much private spending which I think is a waste as I have no confidence in the service that I might get. Of course many private doctors would not want me as I am a chronic case.

@interpio definitely try out melatonin. It is a hormone and not addictive, it really has helped me through periods of insomnia. Have you heard of it? 

@JanetGJones @Eddyyy @BrianM @interpio Thank you all for sharing. It can be difficult going to a GP with a mental health problem, they are used to prescribing pills, while mental health problems require more.

Here is an article we wrote about movies which help with the loneliness of mental illness, you can read it here:

https://member.carenity.co.ukhttps://www.carenity.co.uk/forum/other-discussions/living-with-behavioural-disorders-mental-illne/5-movies-about-mental-illness-2605#14498

i hope some of you feel better for having shared. It might help you also to read and comment on some of the testimonials of other members who are currently suffering from depression:

https://member.carenity.co.ukhttps://www.carenity.co.uk/https://member.carenity.co.uk/magazine/testimonials?m%5Bname%5D=Depression&m%5Bmid%5D=258

@JosephineO   thanks Edddy, I have been prescribed a  sleep pill called Zismirt, which I have found satisfactory

@BrianM  the public health doctor I attend is actually a "psychiatrist", although they are usually young and possibly in training and usually foreign,   but they do not engage with me in a meaningful exchange about my mental illness; they merely spend the 10 minutes filling up their forms and ticking the boxes, something like the forms you ask us to fill in about our mental illness; the apparent trainee psychiatrist spends the remainder of our allotted 10 mins. feverishly writing a report about their meeting with me, but they do not engage with me in a meaningful talk about my mental illness and my core reason for meeting them. The last psychiatrist I met was from South Africa and prior to that I met psychiatrists from Malaysia, Africa, Indonesia etc. One African psychiatrist suggested that I should attend more "parties" !. and other psychiatrists had equally idiotic suggestions, but the common denominator was a total lack of interest and a simple suggestion to access mental health elsewhere with some semi private charities as they being official Health Service Executive had no "resources" to help mental health patients except to listen to those who feel suicidal. I have tried accessing counselling from the private counselling with a reduced payment but this was not much use either, as I felt too pressurised to accept their dictate and when I challenge their "advice" I meet with a stony response of silence. In the end I feel almost better away from all these "psychiatrists" etc who seem to know little about the basic mental makeup of a person. It is like the Churches which constantly condemn people and drive them away from attending church as we all really need to hear is some encouraging words to keep going.

If I had answered this survey yesterday I would have answered in the negative.

However, this morning I met with a wonderful consultant who actually listened to me. I’m usually being led back out the door before my arse cheeks have hit the chair! Today, he let me rant, cry and explain and then he reflected back, with suggestions. My consultation was 30 minutes. NHS at its finest.

My previous experience, in the same mental health facility, was with a patronising, ignorant, arrogant, judgemental foetus (my mental illness is older than the years he’s been born!) Infact, I felt brave enough to report him today as I was actively considering suicide AFTER seeing him.

Similar experience with GP. It was like Groundhog Day. No matter what ailment I went in with, he would attribute it to my mental illness or a side effect of the medication used to deal with it (including when I developed arthritis in my toes). He also asked if I’d been abused in my childhood every time I went in. (No, I hadn’t, by the way. My MH is organic and hereditary and established as thus by a senior consultant psychologist).

However, after avoiding the GP practice for 3 years, I went with insufferable musculoskeletal pain, insomnia, fatigue, and acute anxiety and depression due to my becoming resistant to prescribed medication  (but having no review because I’d been discharged from clinic.) She listened patiently. Referred me to all the relevant departments (mental health, X-ray, phlebtomology) and even proposed that I may have PTSD.

The question at the top of this page asks 'are you a carer for someone else?'

I feel as if I am the carer for EVERYONE else at the moment. Obviously I am not, but .....

Mental health care provision seems to be bogged down in technicalities and methodology. Simple respectful kindness more often than not eliminates the symptoms almost immediately, from there it is a simple case of getting to know what the person values most in life and help them attain that, according with their abilities. Treatment that is driven by performance statistics and budgetary considerations is always going to be piecemeal and insufficient. It's about the human heart and human interaction. You can't monetise that or subject it to time-constraints.

@Pleasance‍  Thanks for reading, but this is still just the beginning, I am feeling much better, but I’m still not done yet, you see being transgender, I still don’t have a referral to the transgender clinic, and I’m growing increasingly impatient, as I age further.

 Anyway, before I left for Thailand I’d waited 21 months to see the psychiatrist at Gelligron, I had a mental health crisis, whilst in Thailand, and overdosed on my medication, and some Paracetamol/Tylenol (650mg) tablets, and ended up in Intensive Care Unit at the Bangkok Hospital, in Chiang Mai. 

 Their Psychiatrist and general medical care is the best, I was given an Outpatient appointment, for 5 days after my hospital discharge, and within 4 days of this, I went to the hospital at 18:00 to request another appointment, for follow-up with the psychiatrist, and was given, the first appointment, 10:00 the following morning. 

 In the paperwork from the hospital, was a recommendation that I see the psychiatrist back home, so when I went to see, the Advanced Nurse Practitioner, at my GP practice on April 23rd, she contacted them requesting an emergency appointment, so now I have their emergency appointment, on the 3rd of June, if it was 1 more day that’d be 6 weeks, for an emergency appointment, after already waiting, over 22 months, this will make it a total of 23 and a half months to see the psychiatrist, so almost 2 years, has to be a record waiting time, lets hope they keep this appointment. 

 I’ve also been offered a referral to a gynaecologist in Thailand, to begin my transition, and may well do so, if they still haven’t begun to help me here by then, in my own country, not to mention there’s no transgender clinic as yet in Wales, despite promises, meaning I’d have to travel all the way to London to see a transgender specialist anyway. 

 So all this waiting is very stressful, but what keeps me going, is knowing, Huw still cares, despite my case file now being closed, and my Thai friends, and my new found love for the Buddhist religion also help to keep me going, I’m happy every day now, and take each day as it comes, as a new day, and try to continue to spread positivity, as it seems to reward me with positivity. 

 I don’t ever think about going back on the drugs, as I have all I need, wonderful supportive Thai friends, and my Wonderful Thai boyfriend, who I miss every day I’m home, but he constantly stays in touch, and sent me an updated selfie, that helps to keep me smiling each day, and no I don’t struggle to tell new partners, I’m very open, I struggle more with having to learn their language, and write in Thai, to help them understand. 

 As you’ve likely figured, I like Thai guys, I find them much easier to get along with than Welsh or other British guys, but learning Thai is a small price to pay, for my happiness, I guess it’s just like my Thai boyfriend is openly bisexual, and supportive of my transition, what a 1 in a million find, being open is very important in a relationship, it helps strengthen your relationship, and give both you and your partner strength to overcome any situation you find yourself in, I feel so blessed to still be around to be able to give you this update, and I hope you can take something positive from it, if anything I share helps you or anyone else here, then I’m glad I shared it 😊