I've been seeing a lot of posts recently in regards to the crisis team.
I understand that the MH services are a bit like the "postcode lottery" - but i'm wondering what peoples experiences are with them.
I personally have refused to see them. I've had them a handful of times and found them absolutely useless. It's impossible to get the same set of people everyday (whether by phone or by house visit). I have an anxiety disorder and i feel this is worsened by them phoning at stupid hours with no warning (sometimes 9pm at night), and turning up on my doorstep (complete strangers).
I also have major trust issues and rarely speak to people i really trust, let alone a bunch of strangers, so even if i was very unsafe/suicidal i wouldn't beable to tell them because i just wouldn't feel comfortable.
When they do speak to me it's like.."Hi, how are you?" - "Fine thankyou" - "Ok well if you need us you know where we are, bye".
Or they will ask questions about what i'm doing "tonight", of which i reply nothing, and they give a handful of suggestions as if i'm ignorant and don't know what to do to distract myself. They've also told me to go out walking when they know (or should know) i suffer with agoraphobia - so it's of no use to me!
Do you feel they're a good service?
If so, how do you find them beneficial?
What are your experiences with the services?
Would you use them again/continue to use them?
I'm just curious, really. As i often feel a bit stubborn in not seeing them - but i do have my reasons, so i'm curious to others experiences.
I've used the crisis team twice, both during major episodes. I know my mum found it helped her knowing I was getting help and I found them helpful. The first time they referred me to a CPN when I told them I didn't wat to go to hospital and until an appointment was arranged they came to see me every day and organised for another team to come out and help with housework and my child.
The second time my mum tod them to get me a hospital bed, which they did that night and after I was discharged they came to see me. My current CPN was one of the team that came out that night. WE don't no any exercises or anything now just talk about things. But at first they got me phine numbers and leaflets fo local support groups, they have also helped me sort out DLA forms etc.
I have real issues with the crisis team. I know some people who absolutely love them and find them really helpful and think the service is great. I just don't like them and I have also started refusing to see them because I genuinely think sometimes they make me feel even worse.
I think the principle of the service they offer is great, keeping people in the community as long as possible but I just find them patronising. All they have ever done in the past is repeatedly have the following conversation with me:
-How are you?
-What are you doing tonight?
-Do you think you are safe tonight?
(At this point I would invariably say no because I mean why else would I be phoning them?)
-Distract yourself.
They always ask the same things and then rattle off a list of really patronising distractions like telling me to water plants or try to meditate. I do see the value of distraction but personally by the time I am in the state where I am referred to the crisis team, especially by the time I make myself call them then distractions are usually incredibly difficult. One social worker also told me that I was 'acting like a child and needed to grow up' after I had taken an overdose and been sectioned by the police.
I also find their policy of turning up un announced to 'check' if I miss their call, or to send the police round to 'check', incredibly irritating although I appreciate why it is done.
I'm in Aus, so I'm not sure how similar the crisis team over here is... but I voted other because they are very hit and miss. Some of the people are fantastic and give great advice some are like you said, superficial and patronising. Some of them know me so know the kind of thing to say but I get a lot of (sorry for copying Pomegranate)
-How are you?
-What are you doing tonight?
-Do you think you are safe tonight?
(At this point I would invariably say no because I mean why else would I be phoning them?)
-Distract yourself.
... which is needless to say very unhelpful when you are in a crisis situation.
I hate, hate, hate crisis teams, I've seen them in two different areas, and they've been just as rubbish in both.
Sure, they kept me as safe as possible, but they did it in a manner that was just like I was wasting their time, like because I hadn't seen all the situations that they had, I couldn't possible know what a "true" mental health crisis was. Sure, because what I was doing seemed pretty crisis at the time. I think that they are just really arrogant, and I always get the same questions that other people seem to be asked, even on the time that I hadn't called them myself, it had been my parents.
They are always different people, which is the fault of the system, not them I guess, but they never know my history, nor do they seem to remember that I've used them before. I'm just not a fan at all.
I will stop ranting in a second, but my uncle also has had dealings with crisis, and they were just as bad. At one point we called them because he had been out walking for 72 hours without food and drink, was refusing to come home, and thinking that he lived in a house where he hadn't lived for 22 years, and so trying to break in, in order to kill himself, in his home, rather than the street. Crisis told us that he was fine, and we should just get him to his next psych appointment, 5 days later. We couldn't get him home, let alone to a doctor.
The next day we called his psych direct and he got sectioned. It's just a poor service, in my experience.
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. Make us all feel wonderful. We'll never forget."
There isn't a crisis team in my area, although there is one in an area very close to me. People have been fighting to get proper crises services for ages but nothing is being done about it.
I put it down on paper and then the ghost does not ache so much.
Don't try to calm the storm, calm yourself, the storm will pass.
Shortly before being discharged from hospital I was assessed by the home treatment team. I found them really patronising and refused to see them upon discharge at home.
Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes but when you look back, everything is different…
you once called your brain a hard drive, well say hello to the virus.
I have seen the crisis team in two counties and both times I thought they weren't really trying to help. Like others have said, they just patronise you and tell you obvious distractions. But, yeah, if you're at the point where you're calling a CRISIS team, surely they can't be so thick to realise that you're way past distractions?
I've had a few nice people from each team, who have actually helped me. But not really to get me out of a crisis, but to get me admitted to hospital.
I have used them and I hate them. How is being told to have a cup of tea and bath and then go to bed meant to help how you are feeling right then and there? It's so totally ****ed up. I don't think I'll be using them again.
I think the principle of the service they offer is great, keeping people in the community as long as possible but I just find them patronising. All they have ever done in the past is repeatedly have the following conversation with me:
-How are you?
-What are you doing tonight?
-Do you think you are safe tonight?
(At this point I would invariably say no because I mean why else would I be phoning them?)
-Distract yourself.
They always ask the same things and then rattle off a list of really patronising distractions like telling me to water plants or try to meditate. I do see the value of distraction but personally by the time I am in the state where I am referred to the crisis team, especially by the time I make myself call them then distractions are usually incredibly difficult. One social worker also told me that I was 'acting like a child and needed to grow up' after I had taken an overdose and been sectioned by the police.
.
THIS. I had the same experience. They spoke to me the morning after a particulary bad episode. They asked me how i was, i said better than last night (ie wasn't trying to kill myself at that point in time) and he just told me to distract myself. Like i haven't tried that already! It just made me feel like i was wasting their time
Life Is Like A Beautiful Melody Only The Lyrics Are Messed Up
I selected other because i've seen them (over a period of several weeks), and i have to say that things did improve, and they passed me over to other services rather than me having to wait another so many months. I never felt pressured to hurry up, having a couple of appointments that lasted a couple of hours. However, i was lucky and saw the same ppl much of the time. Downside was that in a moment of real crisis, if i phoned i generally ended up feeling like a whiny brat, and was told ridiculous distractions that would NEVER help! I found the regular contact though made me try harder to not do any serious damage to myself because i can't lie, and wouldnt want to end up in hospital...
I've only seen them once and I wouldn't use them again. If I'm at rock bottom it's extremely traumatic for me to speak to people I don't know. - When they assessed me there were 3 of them, and they would've had a student as well if I hadn't said no. I found the experience humiliating and patronising. (By the way I was over 30 at the time so the patronising bit isn't just about age!)
Basically what I need when I get to that stage is to be admitted + kept physically safe - but there aren't enough beds. Being asked lots of questions by strangers just makes everything worse - particularly when it's different workers each time, and I have to keep going over the history.
I know some people find it helpful but I feel quite bitter and let down by what has happened when I have been in a crisis. I have now realised that the NHS doesn't have anything to offer. All I have is an "emergency box" in my room. (food, novels, kettle, can opener etc) so I can lock myself in on my own for a few days if I need to.
the crisis team told me that the whole system of "crisis teams" was actually set up by them in my area. don't know how true that is, but if it is, you have Harrogate to thank (read: kill). heh.
i think the crisis team work if you're not expecting anything from them. when i used to hope for their help, they really didn't. i hate the whole "you're still alive - well done!", "stay positive", "everyone has 'bad days'", "distract yourself" shizzle.
but if i just needed to vent to someone after visiting A&E, it was kind of okay. they gave me a lot of time to just go "blaaah".
they were helpful last time i needed to be admitted to hospital. i didn't have to go through a whole rigmarole, they just kind of told me. what i didn't like was that they kept straight out telling me that my perceptions were wrong. i didn't take that well. just locked horns with them.
generally i refuse the crisis team, because i find them more distressing than helpful, and i strongly don't like people i don't know well in my flat.
but i'd never say never again. but i'd never say never again. i feel bad implying they're bad in my area, because they aren't and lots of people find them very helpful. i just generally don't.
Last edited by whirlpools : 13-05-2009 at 07:09 PM.
I've seen the Crisis Team once, I was referred via A&E and I point blank refuse to go back again. I was having psychotic symptoms (but with insight) and had reached a point where I believed I had to to SI severely.
My experience was to travel for 30 minutes, and spend a lot of time waiting around to be asked a lot of useless questions and once they'd established that I wasn't SU they told me I could go. They then suggested that I should go back on the anti-psychotics which I had stopped taking with permission from my doctor because they made me suicidal.
I was so angry I think I spent the next hour just crying and shaking, which I suppose you could argue is better than paranoid psychosis. :|
"And yesterday I saw you kissing tiny flowers,
But all that lives is born to die.
And so I say to you that nothing really matters,
And all you do is stand and cry." - That's The Way by Led Zeppelin
When I was with camhs I (funnily enough) never needed a crisis intervention out of hours,, because in principle, they listened to me at the time when I DID speak to them and would call me or make very regular appointments if I said I was in crisis...
The adult teams, being so grossly inadequate in the first place however meant I was frequently left in a state I would say is crisis level and told to 'come back in two-three weeks' or call the duty worker between 9-5 weekdays if you need us (which I did, but they never once helped me by seeing me, it was all 'its your responsibility, we cant take care of you, thats your job, distract, have a bath etc (aka, go on, piss off, we're busy).
I therefore did end up calling the crisis team several times. The first ended in them comming out to see me and telling me I wasn't anorexic (weight wise) enough for admission, then they told me I 'just' had anxiety and proptly left, which upset me so so much I cannot explain the mental damage it did.
The second patronised me and told me I should read a book or distract myself, whilst I was audibly having a panic attack, she didnt listen at all, just told me to do things and think of my parents if I were to end my life.
I did ONCE have a lovely lady listen to me,, she actually cared and got someone to call me back the next day to check I was okay. I could hear the compassion in her voice and she acknowledged my mental distress and didnt ask things of me, just took her time and gently talked me through my feelings.
The forth.. well that ended in me being admitted to a general hospital and having 2 operations for serious self harm. They told me to look forward to my ed apt (which was in 3 weeks time, on their records)! woo hoo.. if I felt able to survive 3 weeks why would I be calling a crisis line at 2am?
After that I gave up. It doesnt do any good in my opinion. Samaritans all the way. At least they dont have your address either, they cant call ambulances or whatever without permission.
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I have lost count of the times I have had to see the crisis team. But overall i think they are pretty rubbish.
I remember the worst person i had see me in A+E (after i had self harmed quite badly and nearly tried something else, and was brought in by an ambulance) wanted to see me on my own, and shut out my mum. She asked if i had planned it, i said yes for about a week. And she said well if you had planned it all that time, you'd think you'd get it right (meaning die). I was so angry. She didnt understand at all. And then when mum came in to talk to her, my mum felt angry too, but we didnt say anything because this woman had obviously already made up her mind that i was an attention seeker. And guess what? A few days later i was admitted to the ward by a psychiatrist.
The last time i saw them was after running away from the psychiatric ward with another patient, when i was a day patient and they were quite nice and actually listened to me, and ended up being admitted to the ward again as an inpatient.
But by all these opinions, i can see most people find them patronising, and not helpful. You would think if so many people found this service bad, that they would improve it, to actually help people.
Last edited by little_miss : 14-05-2009 at 12:14 PM.
Reason: added a bit
On the phone, I found them pretty unhelpful, I got all the same suggestions as you guys and none of them helped. I do understand that over the phone they are limited in what they can do though, and if you are in a real crisis that can't be solved with a cup of tea, you're supposed to go down to A&E and see someone there.
Of course then there is the issue of how helpful they are there - the first time I saw them in A&E they didn't refer me to CAMHS or anything like that, just told me I should focus more on writing poetry! The second time I got a CAMHS referral - which is probably the best thing that has happened in terms of my mental health, and the third time they offered to admit me to the adult ward, but I was still kind of young, and was in a day program for three days a week anyway, so it didn't seem like the best option. So yeah, the last two times they have actually been helpful.
Seeing them face to face has been a lot better for me. I saw them today and met a really helpful woman who is going to meet with me daily to see how things are, she was really kind and has offered to do relaxation with me and is going to try to get me into the yoga class for inpatients, which is great because I bloody love yoga! She's also going to get a doctor to see me because I told her I'm not on any medication, my GP doesn't want to put me on an antidepressant because of the mood swings.
knowing my luck I will go tomorrow and have to see a different person though! Fingers crossed I wont :)
I have used the crisis team before quite a few times and can only recall once, them being any help. I think it really depends on the individuals that you see as to how helpful they are and your attitude at the time. Also I don't like strangers entering the house so I'm already set on edge and in a pretty unwelcoming state tot hem in the first place but have managed to arranged seeing them elsewhere before.
Definitely agree about them being patronising and also they tend to be quite assumptive. The last crisis team I saw were frank about things which I liked. One of them said "If you want to kill yourself then you will just go out there and do it, there's nothing we can do about that" which to some might seem triggering or uncaring whatever but it's true.
I guess they're only ever a useful resource if you want the help.
