My word against theirs

As psychiatric patients, we are so often disbelieved or not listened to in the first place. Our accounts of poor treatment and trauma are dismissed as an overreaction; we reach out for help only to be deemed attention seeking; even our interpretation of the world is pathologised and declared as symptomatic of our madness.

PIP in a pandemic

I’d never heard of PIP before I realised I was eligible – at least 3 years, I might add, after I should have made a claim. Only after I’d begun the application process did I begin to tune into the conversations about unfair and discriminatory assessments. Suddenly it was all I was hearing or talking

“I’ll just give you a call once a week to make sure you’re alive”: The impact of changes to mental health service delivery during COVID19. Part 2

Last week we published part 1 of a blog about changes to the delivery of mental health services during COVID19, based on 16 interviews that we’ve done with people using mental health services across the UK. In that blog we highlighted major changes, including significant reductions in contact, inconsistent and ad-hoc check-ins, disparities in the

Mad Covid Voices, with Lou

27th April 2020 How has your care changed since COVID19? The care itself has just gone remote, just phone calls – phone calls instead of normal GP appointments, and then it was explained to me that if needed I can get access to an in-person meeting, meaning if I’m in crisis, I imagine. But my

Mad Covid Voices, with Sam

22nd April 2020 How has your care changed since COVID19? I mean I didn’t really have much to begin with, so I think it would have changed a lot more if I actually did have some. I’m technically under secondary services, but other than the occasional check in with a psychiatrist I don’t really have

Mad Covid Voices, with Avery

21st April 2020 How has your care changed since COVID19? All of my face-to-face appointments have been cancelled, or moved to telephone appointments, but in the telephone appointments they’re not really been able to make another appointment. It’s just kind of been a one-off “are you currently fine?” level of contact, kind of for the

Mad Covid Voices, with Rowan

20th April 2020 My trauma therapy ended suddenly 18 months ago, as funding was cut. I see my GP every 6 weeks and see a neurologist. I am waiting for a place for neuropsychology therapy to help with sensory issues.  I have OCD, but there are no services in my area to help with this.

Mad Covid Voices, with Frankie

19th April 2020 How has the ward changed since COVID19? For a couple of weeks it was a lot quieter, because the way this mental health trust has been working has been that any new patients get sent to one specific ward for two weeks to check they don’t have Coronavirus symptoms before coming here

Mad Covid Voices, with Ashley

18th April 2020 How has your care changed since COVID19? Well I used to have therapy twice a week, I’d had an individual session and a group session, and since I’ve went down to basically only having a phone session, and that’s every two weeks. The groups haven’t been running at all. Also all of

Mad Covid Voices, with Eli

17th April 2020 How has your care changed since COVID19? My care hasn’t really changed. I knew I’d be discharged from Early Intervention around Feb 2020, so I guess this process has basically just been a little more disorganised!  I was contacted by someone from EIT yesterday who wanted to do the usual questionnaires they

Mad Covid Voices, with Kerry

15th April 2020 How has your care changed since COVID19? Prior to COVID19 I was seeing my care coordinator every week, I was having therapy every week, obviously seeing my GP every 2-3 weeks. Now, everything’s moved to over the phone, so some therapy over the phone which is interesting… some that are every week,

Difficulties and uncertainties getting help in a mental health crisis.

To date, we’ve done 16 interviews with people using mental health services across the country. This is the second in a series of blogs highlighting key issues that they’re facing as a result of COVID19. Some of the people we interviewed gave consent to publish their interview in full, which will be available to read

Mad Covid Voices, with Jesse

14th April 2020 How has your care changed since COVID19? So obviously most things have been shifted online. I’m working with one of the EIP services (Early Intervention in Psychosis) and it’s quite intensive, they have a bunch of different things rather than just seeing someone once every few weeks. Normally my Care Coordinator would

Mad Covid Voices, with Stacey

13th April 2020 How has your care changed since COVID19? COVID has changed a few things about my care, and I’ve found it quite disconcerting. Until a few months ago I was seeing a CPN every few weeks for general monitoring and support. She actually left the CMHT at the beginning of March, and I

Mad Covid Voices, with Alex

13th April 2020 How has your care changed since COVID19? I’m in a DBT programme in my health ward, but I had only just started, I’d had 6-8 appointments with my therapist and 1 group appointment, and then everything stopped. I think they’ve stopped the whole DBT programme and, as far as I’m aware, my