Have been reading the BBC News Website today and have discovered that a nearby community hospital with a CMHT is confirmed to be closing. There are four in my area that are closing, all community hospitals and all four could potentially have a CMHT attached. I only know that one of them definitely has a CMHT and it is one that will end up transferring all or part of its caseload to my CMHT.
If you haven't read my previous blog post about my CMHT, please do so here
Once you have read the previous post, can you understand how my local health board can justify closing a nearby CMHT and transferring part or all of its caseload to mine when mine is already severely overstretched? I certainly can't. If I'm lucky, I may get 'support' this Wednesday at group therapy but I don't think I have any chance of getting 1-2-1 support to help me cope with the stress of group therapy before Wednesday. I've told various care co-ordinators about my fears of group therapy and at my last meeting with seven, I told her that I was terrified of going to group therapy. She told me that she would support me before I went there but obviously, as she's off sick and no one will cover her cases, I won't get any.
The response to my previous post about my CMHT was overwhelming, everyone telling me that I needed to make a complaint about the situation. I am in two minds about making a complaint to be honest. For one, it's a stressful process to go through and as my CMHT are experts in backside-covering, they'll easily wriggle out of any blame that gets directed their way. For another, I wanted to make a complaint about my psychiatrist always being late and I was told that it never did anything. When I say late, I mean up to four hours late. If I am seen half an hour after my appointment time, I am lucky. There's normally at least an hour wait to see him and my blood pressure rises with each passing minute. So being told that a complaint wouldn't do anything to make him pull his finger out, I decided not to put myself through stress if it was going to be in vain.
However, back to my current situation, I have been told that it is my responsibility to make a complaint, not just for my own sake but for the others in my CMHT who are too afraid to raise their voices and complain. While I doubt that an individual complaint will go very far, maybe if I can find others at my CMHT to complain about it, together we could have an impact. I'm seriously considering looking for others at group therapy to join me in making one big complaint. I know that this group therapy is supposed to help me but I will feel infinitely better if I get even substandard care from my CMHT. Substandard care has got to be better than no care right?
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