"I never received a phone call even though I was desperate"

About: Borders General Hospital / Borders Urgent Care Centre Hawick Community Hospital / Mental Health outpatients

(as a service user),

I feel utterly helpless and hopeless. I was seen by the crisis team and took through an Mental Health assessment. It was agreed a planned admission was the reasonable option and a phone call from the community team would follow later that day to discuss this and develop a plan going forward.

The officers that were in attendance agreed without some sort of intervention this would be a reoccurring problem, where they would need intervene themselves. Anyways I was kindly taken home following a suicide attempt and mental health assessment. As a planned admission was going to be more effective and useful option. Rather as just admitting me without a plan.

I arrived home early morning before office hours. The community teams office  hours are between 9am-5pm. Haven't heard anything by around lunch time I was desperate for help and I phoned the community office. Where I was told by a secretary that my Community Psychiatric Nurse (CPN) was working and would phone ASAP. Well I never received a phone call even though I was desperately reaching out for further help.

Now I have been told I have to wait the whole weekend to find out what happened. I honestly give up! I thought my CPN I could trust but I feel a total sense of betrayal knowing they were working; you would of thought speaking to an actively suicidal patient would be high on the agenda or they could of passed it on to the duty CPN but neither happened.

It's disgraceful and people will continue to see tragedies unfortunately due to this lack of care. A mental health crisis should be treated in the same way as a heart attack it's a medical emergency.

Do you have a similar story to tell? Tell your story & make a difference ››

Responses

Response from Philip Grieve, Associate Director of Nursing for Primary and Community Care/Chief Nurse Health and Social Care Partnership, Primary Care, NHS Borders 2 years ago
Philip Grieve
Associate Director of Nursing for Primary and Community Care/Chief Nurse Health and Social Care Partnership, Primary Care,
NHS Borders
Submitted on 09/01/2023 at 15:29
Published on Care Opinion at 15:29


Dear Itsokaynottobeokayvet

I am sorry that you have not had the service that you expect to receive from our mental health services and that your CPN has not been in touch. Please get in touch with me on 01896827151 to discuss this further and to see if I can help and indeed find out why planned care and intervention has not progressed.

Kind regards

Philip Grieve

Service Manager

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful
Response from Philip Grieve, Associate Director of Nursing for Primary and Community Care/Chief Nurse Health and Social Care Partnership, Primary Care, NHS Borders 2 years ago
Philip Grieve
Associate Director of Nursing for Primary and Community Care/Chief Nurse Health and Social Care Partnership, Primary Care,
NHS Borders
Submitted on 09/01/2023 at 17:12
Published on Care Opinion at 17:12


Dear Itsokaynottobeokayvet

Thank you for contacting me this afternoon and talking through your concerns, you are reassured that there has been a miscommunication within the adult community team and are assured that both myself and your CPN will look into this further to ensure this does not happen again. Hopefully your planned admission will be soon and you gain benefit from this in your recovery.

Kind regards

Philip Grieve

Service Manager

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful
Opinions
Next Response j
Previous Response k