I need to investigate what’s happening!

It’s no secret that I struggle with quite severe mental health issues on a 24/7/365 basis. I’m not talking about being a bit unhappy or a little anxiety over doing something for the first time. No, I’m talking life and death stuff that could well go down the death path at any time.

At the start of December 2024 I asked my GP to make a referral back to mental health services because I knew I was losing the fight and I needed some proper support. After a bit of messing about it was agreed that I would be allocated a dedicated CPN/Co-ordinator to provide that support and be a single point of contact. Only problem was that there was about a 10 month to a year waiting list for that service.

However, between December 2024 and the actual allocation of a CPN there would be regular telephone contact between Manor Road (my local mental health team) and myself. As expected, that “regular” contact has at best been a complete pile off shite.

Last night, I kind of hit the stops and even though I knew there was very little that could be done, I needed to talk to someone who had the experience and knowledge of a professional. To that end I called the 111 service and went down the option 2 route and eventually got to talk to a mental health trained “person” and I have to say she was very helpful, well informed and surprisingly she had taken the time to read over some of my history before she called me which is something that is frighteningly rare.

One thing that I took from the conversation last night was the comment that the lady made that based on the notes she had read I was nothing like she expected me to be.

I’m not entirely sure what that means but it does somewhat confirm my feelings that 99% of mental health staff at Manor Road haven’t listened to what has been said to them. Then to compound the problems they make notes that are almost totally inaccurate and not a true reflection of what has been said.

The problem with this is their notes regardless of how accurate or inaccurate they are form the “official record” and dictate what treatment pathways I am offered and sent down.

I now feel I need to do the same as I do with my GP and check what has actually been written in my notes. Tomorrow I will be contacting a manager/senior staff member to discuss my concerns and at the same time request under the Data Protection Act copies of all my medical records/notes for the last year.

Once I have these notes I can make an assessment and if I feel they are not a true record of what has happened then I will formally challenge them and have them corrected. If they refuse to change them as I suspect they will, then I at least need to make sure they record and document my challenge to their account of things as part of my medical records.

Then in the future I will, if needed, make plans to stop inaccuracies creeping in again.

What those plans will be I’m not sure yet and that will be based on what I find.