Private mental health treatment.
 

Hi,

I have been under the NHS mental health services since I was 13, and have been in Adult Eating Disorder Services for 3 years now. I am coming towards the end of my treatment, and my therapist feels I need further help and support. She is going to try and keep me with the service, however due to severe cuts in the service, this may not be possible, but on the other hand, it may be possible; I am waiting to hear. If they are unable to provide me with further treatment, they want to refer me on to the mental health services as they feel I need further intense therapy. I haven't heard great things about adult mental health services, and someone I know was only offered 4 sessions, and she was very unwell. The cuts in the mental health system is quite scary.

What are your experiences with adult mental health services?

Does anyone have any experience regarding private mental health care? I don't have health insurance and not sure how expensive it is, but it is something that I am going to look into. My GP mentioned private care to me a few months back.

It would be lovely to hear your views.

x x

my exerpeice with adult mental health has been not bad. I do find myself doing a lot of poking people to hurry up and get me sorted, it should't be that way but continually phoning up does get you seen quicker.
I'd also be interested to hear about private care, I don't really know anything about it but one thing I assumed is that if you just saw a private therapist you then wouldn't have easy accsess to a psychiatrist and other professionals like you do with the nhs...
As with too many things it's a postcode lottery! I would say it's worth a try though

I've always been in private psychotherapy. It works well for me.

I see a counsellor privately and it costs me 50 an hour and I see her weekly.

However, I see her in conjuction with mental health services and so I see her for counselling only if that makes sense.

If you want the support of the mental health service but private care it will cost a lot so it's just something to be aware off.

Despite the fact that I am able to work I have been seeing a NHS clinical psychologist for 5 years now. Personally I'd stay in the system if you can.

I see a private psycholgist, and i can honestly say shes the best one i've ever had by a very long strech. However i am paying £80 a session, and i have a session a week so that works out at £320 a month. Im sure there is cheeper options though. x

I have a CPN in the adult mental health service and although she is not a therapist she can help me with coping skills for everyday things. So I find her very valuable.

My personal experience with adult MH services has been very good. As long as you don't expect to much too quickly and you use the resources they give you then they can be very helpful.

i suppose you have to weigh up whether its worth paying the money for the help and support.

i would always say that the cost of therapy isnt as important as the cost of health.
if that makes sense!

my mh team have always been good and responsive.

my personal experience with the MH service has been mostly pretty poor. The odd person, like my psychiatrist, are good and helpful, but mostly I have been treated in a bad way by NHS MH services.
My only experience with private healthcare was when I was in a private hospital for 7 weeks, although I wasn't paying the NHS were as it was the only place they could find me a bed. I could clearly notice the difference there was more to do there, the food was much nicer and a better choice, so I guess you get what you pay for. However, having said that I still got some bad treatment in the private hospital.

I have found the adult MH services much better than the child MH services.
I've had no experience of private care although have looked into it!

For me the mental health services have been really good.
However I live in quite a rural county so that might be why, less people who need the service etc. I am under both the mental health service ( for bipolar affective disorder) and the eating disorder service (anorexia) and they have communicate really well with each other, so everyone is informed of any changes etc.
Currently I am seen regularly(weekly) by a psychologist, dietician and CPN. I can arrange meetings with my psychiatrist as and when I need them, similar with my GP. I am also currently enrolled on a mindfulness course and a nutrition course as well. I have also been told that there is cbt available should I want it, and further ED groups will start up in August. On top of this they are also willing to find me an inpatient place should I feel that it would help.
Personally I guess I cannot fault any of them. I don't think I am getting special care by my counties standards but perhaps compared to nationally I am far exceeding what is usually offered.

I don;t have any experience with private to compare with though.

I havent had any experience of private though it was suggested. I have found camhs better then adult services , personally. I have never really liked adult services anyway. But my old cpn who now works in camhs spent most of her career working with adults and she even said, in my area that adult sevices isn't as good as camhs .

I have a private psychotherapist and he has been extremely helpful.

Adult mental health services initially failed me badly, but then I made a formal complaint and got my care co-ordinator and my psychiatrist changed; now I have a great CPN and a great psychiatrist. I will be getting an Occupational Therapist soon, mainly for my autism-related needs.

While I was at university I had some private counselling at The Priory Hospital in Birmingham. The hospital itself was a really nice place to be in - it felt relaxing and safe and I enjoyed going there purely for the atmosphere. My therapist was also a lovely lady who put me at ease and she used a psychoanalytic approach (looking at the effect events in your childhood may have had on your adult emotional situation) which had never been tried with me before, and it really helped.

The downside: it cost around £120 per session. I also had an assessment session with a different psychiatrist, which cost £100. I ended up self-harming once (only superficial cuts) during my therapy, which was unusual for me as self-harm is something I rarely resort to anymore, and they overreacted (in my opinion). She suggested I should have inpatient treatment, which I didn't think was necessary as it was just a slip-up after a long time of being without it and I knew I wasn't going to do it again any time soon. On top of that, inpatient treatment would have cost around £6,000 for the first week, and £4,000 for the following week. It would have involved me not being able to leave, being checked every 5 minutes, all that sort of stuff - which I don't think someone like me needs as I wasn't a danger to myself or anyone else, it was just one slip-up!

After I declined the inpatient treatment she said she'd done all she could for me and that was it. I had a grand total of 9 sessions and it left me feeling helpless as I'd just self-harmed for the first time in months. I wonder if they were just trying to get more money out of me and felt they'd got every penny they were going to get, or if they genuinely couldn't help me anymore.

Basically the quality of the therapy was great but I was left feeling like they'd given up on me. If it works for you though it's well worth it!

Edit: I was lucky because my Dad offered to pay for me and I wouldn't have been able to have the therapy without his help x

It can take a while for things to happen in the adult mental health service...As someone mentioned above, it can take a lot of chasing people around.
At one point me and my mum looked into private mental health care, but I was advised against it by the NHS mental health team as I was awaiting treatment therefore if I started in private it wouldn't be healthy for me to start again under the NHS, therefore I decided to keep waiting. Mainly due to money really. I guess the advantage of private is you may not have to wait as long...

Ahem, I've found adult services really lacking. But I think most of this problem is because a generalised CMHT cannot help me, and they recognise this, and so instead of thinking ok we will do what we can and still try to support her with a therapist, psychiatrist etc, they just decide to go ok, too problematic, and make me feel fairly pants bout the whole thing.

There are a lot of private therapist out there. Most will (should) offer the first assessment for free - after all you need to decide, as you are going to be funding this especially, if they are right for you as well. What kind of therapy do they offer? What kind of clients do they normally work with? How long on average do they normally work with people for? Do they (will they) liaise with your cmht? (as I agree, it's good to be in the system so to speak).

Just because you have heard bad things about adult services, doesn't mean your experience will be the same. You may have a great one! One of my friends has a great psychiatrist, psychologist, cpn, and social worker - they see all of her weekly. However she doesn't choose to use them and this makes me livid as I think there are people desperate for this level of support.

It's great that you want to use the support. And seem willing to work. I hope the referral to adult services doesn't take long - normally it doesn't - and that you do get some comprehensive help, be it nhs, privately, or a combination of them all x

Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences, it is greatly appreciated.

I have been having Psychotherapy at an ED service for a year now. Prior to that, I was under CAMHS, and a adult ED service in another area as wasn't living where I currently am.

I've had nearly a year of Psychotherapy with the ED service. My therapist had a meeting, and said she has been allowed to carry on until Christmas with me. If she thinks I need a referral to MH services after that time, that will happen.

I do feel a little bit more relaxed now. My ED service is extremely good, and I know I am lucky to be offered further help, especially as i've been there for a while. I know there is a huge waiting list, and severe cuts in their service, so I am very grateful.

x x

It's really great to hear you can continue seeing your therapist until Christmas :) Hopefully if you do need to be referred elsewhere, she can look to do it a bit before she needs to withdraw what she does so that you can meet your new team & perhaps at least get on the waiting lists. x

Apparently it's best to avoid going private if you can, I heard that once you go private it's very hard to get back into NHS care. (don't know how true this is)

To be honest, I think a lot depends on a) your area, and b) how urgent they deem your care.

If you live in a well funded MH service area then there's more access to services because they can afford to keep more going and pay more people to run them. If not, then there could be long waiting lists.

Also, if they conclude that you are an urgent referral then it will be a lot quicker than if they think you are not urgent. Which is pretty crap, because all that seems to depend on one initial assessment and how you are that day.

When I was in Southampton, I went to my GP and got seen by the on call MH person in the CMHT the next day and went straight into DBT. When I was in Derby however, it took 9 months to get an appointment.

So basically, there's a lot of difference in the quality of care you recieve, based on a few factors. I imagine (but don't know) that in private care, it's more standardised across the board.