I don't know if anyone heard about this, in my local town a woman with a history of mental illness and drug addictions protested on the top of a carpark roof for two hours. She said she did it to highlight the lack of mental health facilities in Berkshire. She was told that hse needed to be arrested to get help and as a result it looks like she stole some things to get arrested.

MIND the Mental Health charity said, and it is on front of Thur's weekly paper that there is very little for Mental Health at all in Berkshire. Is this all another post-code lottery? What could be done about this? I want to write a letter to my newspaper and/or the MP.

I'm not sure if this is at all in the right place so if not can someone move it for me. Thanks.

i never heard about this,but the media dont like anything that doesnt involve child abduction in the uk anymore so thats no surprise.the mental health services where i live are terrible and always getting messed about by pencil-pushers who dont have a clue.gp's cant even refer anyone to psychiatrists at the moment because the waiting lists were so long they closed them.

And the media wonder why the country is going slowly down the drain...

i am at stage 2 of my formal complaint filed against my local authority in Brent in london, the one that was on the news about 2 months ago having vastly overspent by 20=million, and they at one point still thought they were in the black!! and i am the one classed has having mental health problems and there supossed to be helping me? Feck Off!!! as father jack so politly puts it from father ted fame, only one more appeal after that to these fools and then i can get it done independently, they are fecked and they know it. will it change anything for me? i doubt it, but if you dont complain.....

Ive not heard about it, but it doesnt surprise me. The whole nhs system seems to be going down the tubes these days.

The mental health system isnt too good in my area. I managed to get a referal but i asked for CBT over a year ago and im still stuck on the waiting list.

I also know of a lassy who attempted suicide, they patched her up at the hospital and sent her home. She waited so long for an appointment with a psychiatrist that her next attempt was successful and she died before she even got an appointment with him. She was only about 28 years old.

In regards to drs in general:

3 years ago my mother was feeling unwell so she called the dr out. The dr said she had a bit of chest infection and gave her antibiotics. That night she died. The dr wouldnt sign the death certificate as in his words "i dont know why she died, i wasnt expecting her to". We had to wait for a post mortem. The cause of death was not a bit of a chest infection but full blown pneumonia. She was 73, diabetic and had COPD. She should have been in hosiptal, not given antibiotics and left at home.

A family friend of mine saw a different dr for a carbuncle on her neck. They gave her antibiotcs but by the time she had finished the course the carbunle was still there, although it had come up to a head or two. On seeing the dr a second time, she asked for more antibiotics and the dr refused. Fair enough i know they dont like giving them out too much these days, but its what she did next that is soooo disturbing. Bascially she squeezed the carbuncle until it burst, with her bare hands, without wearing gloves or washing her hands before doing so. My friend said to me 'i do hope she washed her hands after using the loo the last time she went'. It put my friend off seeing that dr again. Admittedly the carbuncle has gone now but still, eeeeeewwwwww.

I probably have some more 'the nhs sucks' stories somewhere but i cant remember them right now.

I really dont think the nhs cares about people, it seems to be all about pushing the patients through as cheaply as possible.

This post has been edited by Moonlight_Magic: Apr 28 2008, 12:22 PM

wow i really dont know what to say and it take lot for me to be stum. god all story are so sad and my heart gos out to the people and faimlys. i live in the uk.
em xxx

Is there really nothing in the whole of Berkshire?

Wow. Thats bad.....

Not surprising as it has been degraded by successive governments for the best part of 30 years.


Aye, and I would guess that the NHS won't be around much longer, especially once we get another Tory government who will likely finish off Thatcher's work.

Mental health services are being cut again, especially in the London boroughs. Where I live in Buckinghamshire we have a pretty good mental health service. I was offered counselling by my GP practice and then was referred for psychotherapy in a nearby large town. However, I appreciate I am lucky. The biggest problem I had was surviving on Incapacity Benefit while paying the bills on my home. As a single person now living alone in a semi detached house I have struggled with huge fuel bills and every other bill possible it seems. It made a significant impact on my depression causing me huge problems. Unfortunately mental health is not very glamorous unless Amy Winehouse keeps making the news.. who knows..

Martin.

Hey there guys! I live near Cardiff and I found the NHS really good, i was refered to see a pdoc and was seen in less than 6 weeks, I have only had to wait around 3mths for CBT, not all bad in the UK but it does seem hit and miss!