In actual need of Psychiatrist.

wizboque

I have been begging for a therapist for years but all of my problems get put down to autistic difficulties so nothing comes of it.

I was once told I’ve not been through enough trauma by the crisis team…

In the past 2 years I’ve been abandoned by my mother, been homeless, my friend and roommate committed suicide, me and my partner have been the victims of an aggravated burglary, my partner is recurrently ill and on the verge of death weekly, we’ve had a stillborn baby and a car accident, but that’s not enough for the crisis team to help me.

I’ve self referred to all of the places that have been suggested, I’m either told that they do CBT and they don’t think that it will work with my autism or there’s a backlog of 2 years and they’ll get back to me whenever they can.

They effectively dumped me onto social care, but my social worker went ballistic at the CT because she believes I’m unable to move on with my life until these issues are addressed.

My GP also wrote to the social worker and stated

“He has clearly had a number of traumatic past life events and also has on-going stresses relating to debt / housing / his partner’s health.  

He may benefit with psychotherapy and I think he may also benefit from an antidepressant if he is able to take this more consistently. He would also benefit with support to increase his social contact. He has been working towards taking his medication more consistently but is still probably not taking these more than 4 days out of 7, though that is an improvement from before. It is hard to see him benefiting from more formal psychotherapy until he is more consistently able to engage with appointments.”

So which is it? Would I benefit from psychotherapy or not? I’m agoraphobic and do not sleep because of the break in, that’s why I struggle with attending appointments. I do not feel safe in my home or the streets surrounding it.

He then went on to say that due to a lack of CPN support available that its unlikely I’d be considered.

I googled what a CPN is and apparently they make home visits… so why is that not an option?

Well today I went to file a CICA (compensation for being a victim of a violent crime) but I was told that my psychological damage would not be considered unless I had a formal report from a psychiatrist. I tried to explain all of the difficulties I’ve been having in securing one but they were adamant that unless I have that report then my psychological trauma wouldn’t be considered for compensation.

I speak to my GP monthly and the mental health nurse fortnightly but that’s all I have in terms of medical support.

I have a support worker who has just started and comes for up to 6 hours a week but very little has been done so far in terms of chasing things up.

What do I do? Who do I call?

L_Volunteer

This sounds really difficult @wizboque. Like you just want your problems to be taken seriously and not just dismissed because of being autistic.

It is really positive that you have a support worker and speak to your GP monthly and the mental health nurse fortnightly but I can also hear how this is limited.

It sounds like you have been through a really difficult time. One resource that might, hopefully, be helpful is CASS.

CASS stands for Counselling and Autism Spectrum Support. As the name suggests, it is targeted towards autistic people.

Please also remember that we are here for you and listening to you. You don’t have to face this, or anything else, alone if you don’t want to.

Take care for now and we will look forward to, hopefully, hearing from you again soon 

Cher_Alumni

Hi @wizboque How are you today?

I'm sorry you're coming up against barriers to accessing a psychiatrist. The lengthy waiting times are nationwide at the moment, and echoed by so many others on our community I'm afraid. Have alternatives to CBT not been offered following past assessments? 

The main route to being referred to a psychiatrist is via your GP and I appreciate this has been a blocker so far. Would it be possible to request to see another doctor at your surgery or transfer to another doctors if you are unhappy with your current GP? Alternatively, it might be that you need to call the GP to express the difficulties you have in attending and i) request appointments around a time of day or location you could more reliably attend ii) explore in more depth why a CPN wouldn't be able to visit your home address. 

Aside this, I'm going to send you an email shortly, so please keep a watch out for that and reply when you have time. We wish you all the best going forward and with your claim. Please let us know how you get on.