Community mental health services
 

What are your opinions on these types of services? I have been with the likes of CAMHS and early intervention services and it all seems a bit like they work
alongside eachother to lock as many teenagers up as possible. I still am of the opinion that i'm not ill and do not have problems but these services will
not listen. All the do is lock me away when I don't want to see them regularly and the amount of drugs i've been given in those places and I have done
nothing wrong. They say I have delusions - there is no wonder why these people threatening to bring the police down to drag me away to a mental unit when I have done NOTHING wrong and I am perfectly fine and trying to get on with my life. I'm on depot medication and if I don't take it i'll be locked away. These types of services have lied to me and deceived me and thrown a lot of diagnoses at me when I hate the services and don't want them controlling my life and to just leave me alone. I hear most people like their services but I couldn't hate them more.

I don't think their goal is to lock teenagers up, that's a rarity as far as I've seen, for people who are very unwell.

Do you want to talk about what's going on for you right now?

In my experience, CAMHS did jack all and prevented me from going to hospital when I very much needed to be there. Everyone has different experiences though, I found adult services to (eventually) be much better and supportive.

It's a postcode lottery as far too many things are. You could end up with a really good team with lots of therapies available, or one that isn't so good. But you won't know unless you give them a try. I found adult services so much better than camhs

I really wanna help innocent people who have been screwed over by the mental health system. They are poisonous. Down with the mental health act!!

I wasn't with CAMHS in my are however like its been said its a postcode lottery however I have been very lucky; my team have been very supportive and helped me. Majority of the time they try. It to use the Mental Health Act unless it is deemed necessary to protect and keep the individual safe from harm or harming someone else. It's worth giving the CMHT in your area a go and see yay they are like as no one can really say what your team will be like unless they have the same team.

Horrendously scary and infuriating as it can be to be detained under the mental health act, that particular bit of legislation saved my life. So I'm pretty okay with it, when it is used correctly.

I've also found the community support I have received absolutely invaluable and if anything they are whole heartedly committed to keeping people out of hospital as oppose to wanting to lock people away. I've actually known of a fair few people who desperately needed hospital and didn't get it because services are desperate to keep people out and have a serious lack of beds.

Amen

^ Why thank you :)

Yeap. This 110%. 'nough said.

Been under CAHMS and CMHT and have found them both to be helpful when I have been willing to engage with them.

agreed, if you're not willing to work with them, if you're going to lie, or not listen. Then you're wasting their and your own time so don't bother. But if you can let them in and try and work with them it might help

I battled alone with my illnesses for years because I was too afraid to ask for help. Personally, I would have done anything to receive help / therapy / medication sooner as things got progressively worse. I am extremely thankful that I now have an appointment.

It sounds like you wont listen to them to be honest. If you don't co-operate, sometimes they are forced to do things to keep you safe, and as a minor, those things can seem quite extreme, but its because of their duty of care to you. If you need a depo and refuse it, its the best thing they can do to take you in and try and help you. They are protecting you from the risks you'd pose to yourself, and the vulnerability being seriously ill causes.

I'm not saying everything they'd have done was perfect or that they always got it right, but it does sound like they put a lot of effort into protecting you. I am surprised given the fact it is so very hard to get enough help, which if you read the posts on this site, you should realise, that you are not just a bit more grateful.

Your veiw is one sided and maybe one day you'll have the unfortunate experiance of being told if you don't want help, fine, nobody will come after you. Then maybe it will seem more logical to appreciate the amount of time, money, resources and a bed in a unit that TRUST ME, probably had a huge waiting list full of teenagers that needed that level of support [All the units I have been to or known about had waiting lists].

Katy speaks wise words.


As for me, no I have never been sectioned but I have been given the choice, go in voluntary of we'll force you. I chose to go in willingly and I took all medication as needed, PRN, etc and I was with a lot of patients who were on a MHA, all of us were cared for and it was their aim to keep us safe and give us help.

Fast forward to adult mental health services and the same can't be said, in my case. Some people have a really good team, some dont, but a lot of it also depends on your own attitude; do you want their help.

I've been under both, personally I hated CAMHS, but that was more down to them not listening and not getting on with any of the people I saw. The CMHT felt there was nothing they could do for me, which I accepted that they'd done their best but I'm now under mental health services through the hospital so maybe they could've done more I don't know... However I've found the adult services to be very supportive!