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Impact of government cuts


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Have you seen a reduction in quality or availability of mental health services over the last few years?

In 2012/13 I had CBT. The therapist told me that they were having to turn away people with anxiety or depression and focus their services on psychosis. People with anxiety/depression who were suicidal might get help quicker. I was 'lucky' to get help before they started restricting it. I can't remember all the details but she was going to have to start sharing her workload across regions, I think because they hadn't recruited a new member of staff to cope with demand.

I am aware of the IAPT programme training new therapists, but I have heard that the course doesn't equip people for dealing with more severe cases.

Waiting lists can be very long, something which is ridiculous both in human and economic terms. The longer someone with a mental illness has to wait without support, the worse their condition will get. Then when they do receive support, they will need more intense treatment for a longer period of time.

The main reason for this post is that it makes me very angry that the government is failing us so badly. It is as though policy is based on outdated ideas that people with anxiety and depression can make themselves better.

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When there is a shortage of money, we seem to be the fall guys. Yet how much money would be saved by assisting people with OCD and helping keep them in the work force/getting them back into the workforce?

I had some blood in my urine. Even though I am known to have kidney stones, which produce blood in the urine. under the present health guidelines - and you may have seen posters about this - I saw one in the toilets today - since this could indicate cancer , panic buttons get pressed. I feel like I have a season ticket at the hospital at the moment, I've been for a CT scan, an unpleasantly internal examination of the bladder, a consultation,and I am told purely as an elimination process, from the scan results one area of the bladder must be unpleasantly visually examined again.

Fine, I can see this is practical and cancer needs early treatment - and there are loads of people going through this process.

But I cannot accept that people with OCD who desparately need help should not be given some real practical help.

It just so happens, co-incidentally, that having been denied CBT help for years in my trust, there happens to be some money available in it now I am told by the doctor, although possibly for group therapy - which in my opinion is of little value to anyone with the lesser common forms of OCD .

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This is always a hot potato, and I think we can all do something about this in the next year by engaging our local MPs to ask what they intend to do to protect existing MH services and improve them still. With the elections coming up, the NHS will be something they all need to be challenged about.

If anybody ever gets anything like what Lizzy did with the psychosis over anxiety comment please do let me know so we can challenge them, better still get them to confirm it in writing so we can approach the NHS about it.

In terms of IAPT, that was started by Labour, and the Tories invested more money into IAPT. Some IAPT services are great, and can help people with OCD, but most IAPT services are poor for OCD. They only get 1-2 days training on OCD which I don't believe is sufficient. What IAPT did do is improve access to CBT, so I do perhaps challenge the thread comments about long waiting lists, in reality IAPT did shorten them in England (remember pre-IAPT it was not unusual for 12+ months wait for CBT), but what IAPT as yet to do is focus on quality over quantity. For those that read our magazine, last month we reported that Clegg had announced 18-week targets for mental health treatment, but again it is quantity over quality I fear, and how Clegg thinks they can speed things up without more therapists I don't know. I know when we are desperate we all want CBT straight away, but I sometimes wonder if we would be better waiting 6+ months if it meant we got therapy with more experienced and knowledgeable therapists.

The other cutback across all NHS services, not just mental health is the cutback in the national HSS access to the specialist OCD services, waiting times have already increased again to 6 months (when we started the charity it was 18-months, came down to 2/3 months which is reasonable but increasing).

I am not playing politics here, they're all guilty, Labour allowed huge NHS over-spending and the Tories did not to make cutbacks, but I fear the Tory approach is to sell the NHS off to the highest bidder and we lose our amazing NHS forever.

This may be of interest, Normal Lamb (Lib Dem) the Minister of State for Care and Support was kind enough to support our conference, and wrote this:

I wish you every success with the National OCD Conference 2014 – Nottingham. Over two days delegates will have the chance to hear some inspirational speakers: not just clinicians on the front line of pioneering research and practice; but also, people and families struggling to live with and recover from OCD, who continue to inspire us with their courage and perseverance.

This conference is a chance to learn from the best, to turn research into daily practice and recognise the key role of professionals, people with OCD, and families in designing and delivering change across the health and care system.

This Government’s vision and commitment is clear: to put health care for people with mental health problems on an equal footing with care for people with physical health problems. This vision marks a major and radical departure in its intent to rebalance our health and care system. No other country in the world is planning change on this scale.

This month I launched Achieving Better Access to Mental Health Services by 2020 which includes the first ever access and waiting standards for mental health. We’ve identified £40m of new funding in 2014-15 and £80m freed up from existing resources in 2015-16 to help deliver this milestone on the road to parity. Over the next five years our vision is to introduce comprehensive access and waiting time standards across mental health services.

No one underestimates the size of the challenge. And the particular challenge for all of us is moving things further, and faster. But mental health services are in the spotlight as never before and the time for action is now.

Everyone at this conference has a part to play. Ethan B. in his wonderful poem on the OCD-UK website says: “if passed the light, the darkness could fade.” Let’s work together to shine that light on mental health: challenge stigma; champion change; deliver the difference we all want to see.

We have problems with the NHS, but there is still some great staff and services within it to fight to save, and my 2015 election vote will be given to the party that I feel will do the best for the NHS and MH services (inc anxiety).

Perhaps we should create a template letter for members to send to their local MP to ask that very question.

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Perhaps we should create a template letter for members to send to their local MP to ask that very question.

Yes why not?

I have a fantastic personal record on voting. I have never failed to vote in any election, both national and local. My first general election, I was at college, but arranged a postal vote!

I have always voted according to my view at the time on the current issues and never for any particular party for the sake of it..

I am with Ashley on this, it will certainly form a strong part of my voting consideration .

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A bit of political campaigning might be the way to go for a lot of mental health charities. There has been some positive coverage in the 'progressive' leaning papers recently: the Guardian has published many column inches recently arguing for mental health to be treated as seriously as physical health by the NHS management level.

Tez :original:

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  • 4 months later...
Guest zakisbak

I got IAPT very quickly,but may have been lucky.
Seeing my GP and getting presriptions is good.
Benefit cuts are by far the largest impact govt cuts are having on me.

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  • 4 months later...
Guest Origibark

The country is in so much debt, but when a problem is staring them in their face a wise person would address it.

Edited by Origibark
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I have been told by my local CMHT that I can't see anyone,they have changed the way they do things now as well,also many mental health services have been closed down in my area!

I am currently trying to get referred to the Specialist service in Bath,but not getting very far with that!

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