less cmht support

[star runner]

Over the last couple of years i have had a lot of support from Psychiatric services - inpatient stays, crisis teams and fortnightly cmht visits, two years of therapy. I've not always recognised how this has helped me and how other people have to fight for even just a little support.
However as i am doing so well i am now being moved to a team where i will only see a psych or cpn every 6 months or so. it's thrown me into a panic. I can see that resources are precious and there will be other people who need the support but i am nervous. I think i have got a little bit attached to the support and i feel anxious about "being left alone". Has this happened to anyone else? How did you cope?

[Too Shy]

Hiya,

Have they said how they're going to move you over to that team? Is it a case of going straight from the therapy you're having now to moving over and seeing them every 6 months or so, or is there a chance they could do it in a staggered way, reducing it more slowly for a while?

I'm not in quite the same position, but I've had pretty much weekly counselling at our local hospice since August 2010, and I'm getting to the stage of stopping it so what we're doing is working towards it slowly - so from weekly appointments to fortnightly, then every 3 or 4 weeks, then eventually stopping but with the knowledge of who I can go to if I need more support at some point.

There should be things they can do to help you with that to, so giving you the information so that you can ask for help again if you need more, helping you identify ways to cope independently without that support (which it sounds like you're already doing if you're doing so well!), etc, etc.

Good luck, and well done because it sounds like you're doing brilliantly. :) x

[Ballerina123]

This has not happened to me exactally. But a few years back after having inpatient, cpn, long therapy, crisis team intervention and living in MH supported housing for 2years, I moved out to The other end of the country and out of the MH system. So i basically went from having 5days a week support for 2years to nothing in one go. I did this by choice because I wanted to see if I could be normal/survive out side the system.
I am back In MH services now but I managed a whole year without them and I am glad I did because even though I am ill again now I learn a lot about myself and my illness and proved to myself that I can have some what of a normal existence.

Talk to your team about your worries and ask if you can work up to it rather than just swapping.

I actually think you could think of this as a chance to get your life back. Being left alone for a while means that you have to use your coping skill and put some of the therapy into action.
You could go through some of the main points of how to cope on your own with your team.
I would advise you to use your GP a lot for support during the change over and ask your family if they can help support you as well.
And always remember that if you do have a crisis you can still turn up at a&e and you can still be assesed by the psych specialist there. They are not saying you can never have support again they are just seeing see how you cope on your own for a while.

You never know it might be the best this that happens in your recovery. If was for me.