Interesting news item about availabilty/ waiting times for mental health treatment in the UK

[Ecdysis]

This was on the news in the UK today about the (terrible) waiting times patients with mental health issues are facing in the emergency departments there (ER / A&E).

It's similar in the country I'm living in in Europe.

Mental health statistics have been on the rise for many years now... But it seems the pandemic has added a real boost to the numbers and from what I'm hearing, there's also a huge rise in numbers in teenagers and people in their 20s because it's the first generation to have been exposed to social media that's so toxic and so inescapable.

It's going to be interesting how this rise in numbers will affect the societal discourse about mental health in the years to come. What was once a taboo topic seems to be becoming "unavoidable" for society to deal with...

 

[somerandomguy]

Supposedly with the billions of pounds saved by Brexit, the UK was going to pour huge sums into the NHS. Something obviously went wrong there.

 

[No More]

At this point, it won’t matter how many billions more they pour into the system because the whole thing is wildly ineffective, poorly structured/run, bound by red tape, needing thousands more beds/equipment/staff and huge sums of money will still get wasted/funnelled into the pockets of a certain rotten few.

It’s not just mental health, unless you are literally dying (and even then you’d better keep all your fingers crossed) the nhs is in such a state all round that really they can offer very little of anything in a timely manner.

You will find yourself waiting in a&e for hours, regardless of why you are there. And I hate to sound harsh and I really do understand, I do. Because I’d snap so f*cking fast if I were left for days in A&E, but mental health will not kill you (bc you’re supervised in there). A lot of the people in a&e *will* die if they aren’t attended to and rightly life and limb needs to be priority for nursing staff. There’s only so many of them and they can only do so much.

 

[Survivor3]

Supposedly with the billions of pounds saved by Brexit, the UK was going to pour huge sums into the NHS. Something obviously went wrong there.

The Conservative party have ruined this country and the NHS.

 

[KayW]

Its likely that many of those people wouldn't even experience a mental health crisis if they had been able to receive a) appropriate therapy for diagnosis, b) in a shorter timeframe and c) for the amount of sessions necessary

 

[Ecdysis]

Its likely that many of those people wouldn't even experience a mental health crisis if they had been able to receive a) appropriate therapy for diagnosis, b) in a shorter timeframe and c) for the amount of sessions necessary

Yeah I agree. They're not going to the emergency department cos they're too dumb to go to a therapist or psychiatrist or whatever.
The waiting lists for those services are just months and months and months and if someone's been waiting and waiting and trying to get by as best they can and their situation deteriorates and becomes acute, then there's literally no where else left to go.
It's a sign that the system isn't working.
But it's not just in the UK. It's happening in so many countries. Especially if people live in poorer regions or don't have insurance.
Those of us fortunate enough to have insurance and access to therapy... I think often we can't imagine just how dire the situation is for people that don't even have access to that.
My only consolation is there's so much more stuff available online these days.
When I first went to see my GP and said "I'm not coping at all, I need to do therapy" the online resources available today were unthinkable.
If you wanted to educate yourself your best bet was walking to your local library and borrowing a book about depression or anxiety, which was pretty slim pickings.

 

[Friday]

I always get sick with envy about the wait times in the UK / CA / Commonwealth & socialized med countries in general.

I mean… fo’ SHO… when you have the insurance or capital? Capitaliam is awesome. But?

Speaking as someone who has waited over 15 years for the money for some surgeries (I did have 80k set aside for ‘elective’ IE non-life threatening “Just” life bettering surgeries, instead spent on my divorce & custody) that I might have had to wait a year or a bit more for in the NHS, & who has spent over 18mo for ‘life saving treatment’ for others?

I miss living in those countries.. so… so very much.

The US? And it’s motherf*cking monetary caste system? Can. Suck. My. Clit.

I’m half American. I even served “my” so called damn country.

Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children.

No. f*cking. Lie.

I’m also half Canadian. Cut off from COMMON DAMN SENSE by the American half. Of whom? I am seeeeriously …infuriated… with its pestilential state/federal motherf*cking 1950’s extremist religious idealism.

If we didn’t have the free k12 schooling before the red-fawking-scare??? We wouldn’t even have that. Much less the healthcare & education we DO NOT get, that EVERY other 1st world, and half of the so called 3rd world gets, as “basic human” rights.

I’ve been sick… for over a year. 18mo, in total, 12 unable to work. Which? In the US OF FAWKING A? Means f*ck you. AND your piece of shite family. Pull yourself up by your fawking bootstraps or? f*ck. Off. The lot of you. So my family has been supporting me. Because? No. One. Else. f*cking. Will. And I am STILL lucky as hell, in this shithole, armpit of the world… because no one else will.

F.U.C.K. THE U.S. of A. & it’s fawking monetary caste system.

I’d rather be an illegal in ANY country in the world, than both a born citizen & a combat vet in THIS ONE. Which doesn’t give a f*ck, for its people.

 

[Ecdysis]

Hi Friday,

Sorry you're going through this... I've gone through it too.

I was born in Europe but my family immigrated when I was in elementary school to a country that's beautiful and very beloved but has a terrible medical/ health care system where sort of similar to the US, you're screwed if you don't have private insurance.

In my early 20s all the trauma of my childhood started spewing out and it was beyond obvious that I needed a lot of trauma therapy, including inpatient trauma therapy to survive, because otherwise I'd simply suicide.

In this incredibly difficult situation, I made the decision to move back to my country of birth by myself. I was in my early 20s, in a state of suicidal, desperate meltdown, almost peniless and with no support system in my country of origin.

With a LOT of hurdles and struggles, I managed tho. I found a way to enrol in university there, in a course I didn't even want to study but which was easy to get into, because that provided me with health insurance. I got a room to live in a university dorm. I never studied at that university. Instead I organised inpatient trauma therapy and outpatient trauma therapy for myself. Eventually I got my own subsidised appartment and applied for Disability Pension.

People thought I was nuts to move halfway across the world "simply" to have access to adequate health care. But at the time, I literally knew that my life depended on it.

In the country without adequate medical care, I initially saw my GP, then saw a psychiatrist, found a therapist who I had to pay for myself (tho unfortunately no trauma therapists available) and tried to find an inpatient treatment. At age 21, I was shocked to learn that this country had NO voluntary inpatient program AT ALL. Like, none. All they had was inpatient facilities where people were put against their will, if they were "a danger to others or society". So basically stuff like acutely psychotic and violent.

I remember going to the ER begging for help, because I couldn't work out where else to go. I even rang a police station once (in a calm, regulated state) to ask them where people are supposed to go when they are acutely suicidal, because I was unable to work out where to go. The police officer matter of factly explained that yes, this country has NO facilities for this. Either you go to the ER, get some benzo's to calm down and work out a way to survive... Or you don't. Simple as that. If you want to kill yourself, you're free to do that.

At that point I realised that I HAD to move to my country of birth to survive, because there I had access to "proper" health care.

I'm wondering whether you can do something similar? Find some "premise" on which to go the UK or Canada for a while like enrolling in university. And once you have health care there, if you "happen" to get sick a couple of weeks later... Well, then so be it?

 

[Ecdysis]

On the news today on NBC News... "Senate forms bipartisan caucus to address the mental health crisis in the U.S."

It's basically the same as in the UK or Europe... just individual differences in how the health system is set up.

 

[intothelight]

In the US, treatment for inpatient is extremely limited and two factors play an important part insurance and location. Secondary to that, the quality of the program and of the staff is to be taken into consideration; as just because they charge ridiculous sums of money, is no reflection of the effectiveness of the program. So the people least able to care for themselves in society are left to fend for themselves without any support ,and as they become more ill and more destitute, their odd of receiving any type of treatment decline substantially.

Until our society as a whole stops looking at whole sections of the population as invisible and/or disposable there will be no real change.

 

[Friday]

I'm wondering whether you can do something similar? Find some "premise" on which to go the UK or Canada for a while like enrolling in university. And once you have health care there, if you "happen" to get sick a couple of weeks later... Well, then so be it?

If I weren’t so sick? I would.

If I ever fawking recover / don’t die? I will be.

I used to love this county. I still love it’s geography/people/intent. But? It’s laws/policies are killing me. And I’m not going to forget that. Nor knowing that MOST of its citizens are one health crisis away from homeless/jobless/hopeless. Nor the millions who already are. Or the tens of mullions without insurance. This country is too big to give a f*ck about its people. It cares about other bottom lines. And there will always be enough people to meet those.

 

[Ecdysis]

Higher education is dealing with socity's mental health crisis too. In response to a student's suicide in 2021, Yale University will now provide students with the option to adjust their course loads to part-time loads if needed and students will no longer lose their healthcare benefints if they go on medical leave.