This morning I was flicking through an old notebook - from April 2008 - when I found the following simple example of NHS care at its worst.
"In the last few weeks Mrs Carr has reduced her anti-depressant dose with her GP's support but she has had days filled with suicidal thoughts. At her last (10th) session at the Eating Disorder clinic she mentioned this to her nurse therapist....."
How did the therapist react? Well, her reaction is obvious given that I'm writing about it.
Did she show compassion? No!
Did she show she cared? No!
Did she show any concern? No!
Did she suggest Mrs Carr talk to anyone? No!
Did she suggest Mrs Carr make an appointment with her GP? No!
Did she suggest anything? No!
Did she speak? Yes!
What a wonderful NHS we have here. A patient talks about her mind being filled with suicidal thoughts and the therapist actually spoke. She didn't do any of the six possibilities I mentioned above but she actually spoke! One couldn't expect this level of service in any other country, could one?
The therapist actually spoke!
What did she say to this patient who admitted having her mind full of suicidal thoughts?
"Nothing you say will extend your treatment here."
Eight words spoken with chilling callousness for a fellow human being, a patient, a sufferer. There must be many who have heard equivalent words said in the same disgusting way.
Those eight words say a huge amount about how Mrs Carr was viewed by the NHS! The therapist's statement gives the NHS "game" away. How dare they play "games" with Mrs Carr's life.
Suicidal thoughts not taken seriously ==> this patient escalates behaviours for attention or for extended treatment. Mrs Carr didn't even want more sessions at that clinic: they were totally ineffective. In fact, they were worse than ineffective: they made her worse.
It is clear now that the NHS has not seen Mrs Carr's symptoms as real but as an attempt to get continued and unnecessary treatment. That is why we have been baulked; that is why our requests for referrals were refused; that is why Mrs Carr has been denied any community support; that is why our questions have been ignored; that is why the Health Board took 6 months to reply to our MSP's letter; that is why the Health Board did not answer any of the MSP's main questions;
and much more importantly and most obscenely that is why Mrs Carr is still suffering terribly; that is why I and our children are suffering.
Our NHS is an obscene parody of a proper functioning, caring and compassionate health service.
14 comments:
FFS.
I'm so shocked and disgusted that I just don't know what to say...I mean, this sort of response is devastatingly CALLOUS.
In fact, it's CALLOUS to the point of SADISTIC.
(Sorry about the caps, but I'm feeling the need to scream about this :-O
But, doesn't this type of accusation say far more about THEM than it does about the 'accused'?
I mean, if you can accuse someone of a behaviour then YOU must have some experience of yourself being able to behave that way...
It sounds a bit like the therapist was not really listening and just following a tick sheet.
After everything else you've told us, I really don't know why I'm surprised by this.
I am, though, and absolutely disgusted! There's absolutely no way to deal with people like this.
I, too, am shocked and disgusted, even though I have experienced the callous side of the NHS myself. That people in a so-called "caring profession" can behave like this is mind-boggling.
Thank you all for your comments.
I have a possible explantion for the general approach taken with Mrs Carr. I may be wrong but I am certain that what has happened is NOT chance.
Appallingly Mrs C is one of many who are abused by individuals and the system.
I'm thinking about writing a post on this aspect in the next few days and so I'll say no more here about my thoughts.
Just thought - this is exactly why I use a digital voice recorder EVERY time I have to speak with anyone in the NHS (and other public services).
I seriously recommend this tack for everyone. Once they know you're taping them then they're on notice. It doesn't improve matters much but at least it curbs their excesses.
Yes, it's outrageous, Calum and we deeply sympathize. It's going to take a quantum shift to alter this type of thing.
I don't know what to say other than to repeat the first comment: how callous.
And to think we are all supporting this.
Nothing one can say to you Calum that can mitigate that woman's comment. It seems that they had decided not to believe anything she said, but just get rid of her from their service. Close her case from their books. It is amazing that she has kept on after such treatment.
Have just had an awful day :) not with NHS people but other professionals who shall remain nameless...but people can be rude, unthoughtful, how they deal with people can be very damaging and leaves you kind of reeling at their manner, you just wonder why some people choose the professions that they do. Especially when they are meant to be on the side of caring for people, enabling people to live better life's (supposedly)I presumed that was what it was all about, as others do, it is shocking when you are on the receiving end of such a situation. Totally mind boggling. It is also disgraceful that anyone in a profession of importance affecting another persons life to some significant degree can speak to someone in the manner which they do.
Am awaiting your next post when you put your thoughts together.
Feathers
Thanks for commenting again. I've left a comment on your day over at yours. I hope I have!
Excellent inter-personal skills is not a prerequisite for a job in the NHS but it should be. Half of them or more would be out.
Have just dropped the CMHT :) today, that is it finished not going back, waited nine weeks to be assessed, meeting other day, will not allow myself to be in that. Was no help...what do now do not know, but feel released.....sink or swim was no good for me.
They work by text books, in abuse it is hurt and pain, they tend to ignore emotions but that is part of a whole person, am not struggling through anxiety and so on, it made it worse, contending with their system....:)
perhaps it is good for some not for myself at all....have learned much through this experience and in the end it is about respecting yourself not letting yourself be treated in some manner at their whim and mercy. That is how i felt, they never helped anyway so nothing to loose.
Feathers
I can understand your decision. Mrs Carr has improved since she no longer has to expalan and try to convince medics that her symptoms are real. Every retelling retraumatises.
Imagine the medics would have a different explanation though but they'd be wrong.
How can they ignore emotions? Beggars belief but that is what they do.
Calum was told they are text book emotions, discount them/ignore them, there is a lot to learn and a lot to unlearn....
You do not have to be a professional to understand these things, that is what amazes me, they do not think for themselves, purely guided by some text books, find someone anyone top of their profession am sure they will relate, they learned text book, through experience, they knew they had to unlearn and eventually applied what experience had taught them. |Along with text book standard which applies all is not bad, but some is not helpful in the treatment of mental health you cannot box people, label people, if you do you are wrong to do so.
There is a hardness whether it is the environment they work within, but they need to loose it. Take a break and re-think all the reasons there actually went into the work for, what the purpose is, hope it is to enable people to lead a better quality of life by all means available, then re-start again.
One psychiatrist said suicidal thoughts did not get an appointment with him, he had many patients like that, do not deny the point, but on reflection he probably has more as he is not willing to see them :)lol
As if anyone would have a life traumatized, dysfunctional relate how they felt to get help,the implication was there however slight that people somehow said these things to get to see him :) class that as having severe problems if the case.....also there must be a hard cynicism prevailing to adopt that attitude, of which i will not be a part no matter how much ill i feel, have respect for myself and will not be controlled or manipulated or made to feel at someones mercy or whim.
Have no faith in that attitude or that stance on someone who sees his patients in such a manner, he professed he was stubborn, not a virtue i would have thought when dealing with people who need help :) could be wrong and stand corrected if i am, but to my mind is not required. Unfortunately it is very sad state of affairs when the very people who are meant to be there for the public have such a manner about them. However difficult his job may be it is completely wrong to even make the slightest implication of it, to anyone, hope it is not relayed to others who may not be fortunate enough to go through the upset of it all and have to continue a life of severe depression, requiring help and support.
However, they do not make you aware that you are loosing little, as nothing is provided in weeks of waiting and is long way off, so it is a case eventually nothing to loose nothing to gain....very sad states of affair and oh not forgetting if you were not recognized as needing extra help and support,severe illness, treatment you would not be able to see them anyway :)then when you do you do not get much input or very little.
Was told had to help myself.....:) nine weeks ago came cold turkey through overdoses and drink all by myself no help at all, even though was meant to be in hospital,due to the high risk, have sought treatment for severe depression/anxiety suicidal thoughts, on my own, (which suffered from prior 2 years nearly) contacted them asked for appointments, everything could possibly do....with very little input have made it to this place....think that is tremendous work and is helping yourself, thought it was about time they put the support into place...:)as severe depression/anxiety rose.....
Oh and i am ranting but who cares :) in the hospital after overdose he was going to change medication, 2 days after successive overdoses, outside clean and actively seeking treatment am a high risk......for medication...does not take rocket science to add up it does not fit together at all...
But who am i? just some patient who is not supposed to be aware of themselves, not to know how and why their problems are caused, because then i am difficult :) they cannot fit, label me....
Will leave them to their world of cynicism and hard environment that sees patients as making things up or rather they wish to believe that just get to see them, maybe it explains for them why they keep people waiting so long, perhaps an excuse they can apply....well the slightest hint in my direction and my faith and trust in them overseeing the treatment vital to my recovery and my life, it is not a game, it is my life, they seem to forget that, whilst they go home and ignore patients, the patients have to struggle daily to survive, then are met after weeks with this greeting....have no faith at all in that type of person/people.
They did the wrong thing, for me trust and faith is a vital key to my recovery and treatment. Once that is gone there is nothing to work on.. They need to rethink and stop joking around about their own patients, have seen varying statements, in a disrespectful manner, there is no overall sense of caring and compassion it seems, just this hardness that seems to prevail or how it seems they perceive their patients to be.... and wrongly so.
For many of things they cannot agree between themselves on diagnosis, they present one then another, over a few months a patient can go through varying diagnosis, it takes weeks to assess a patient when the Doctor knew already.....:) give me a Doctor any day, but the professionals, specialists no way...part of what they public think about them is their own fault...every person have spoke too without relating experience about the particular place, have automatically gone through why they were not much help...sometimes far more than that..after hearing many stories the same, you cannot dismiss them all, personal stories that all relate to how others were treated...they need to up their profile in the public eyes and start to act differently or it seems they will always be viewed the same by the man on the street.
Rant over could be stronger but tried to reflect the need for change....not that it will help or change anything...but i feel for others going through the system, distraught, on the edge, needing help will they get it? or will they add more to that through how they treat them? Sincerely hope they treat them with respect and the care and compassion they need. That they start to enable people to lead better qualities of life, as they should be doing, forget the ticks on the boxes, please, see the whole person in front of you, not the symptoms, try and view the whole person with a life.
My life does not fit a tick on a box, on a piece of paper, my life, inside me, is more that just that, when they realize this, that a person is a whole person with everything that makes them that person, emotions included, perhaps then they will see the need and the treatment required.
Rant over sorry :) not for me, feel justified in saying it for the others that will follow in my footsteps......
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