No pun intended at all with the title.
It refers to a nurse who rang me from my local CMHT this afternoon, at 4pm, which is what I mean by cutting it fine and just goes to reiterate my viewpoint on psychatric staff in CMHTs. If I had rung them as a patient at 4pm on a Friday afternoon with a problem, they would have said that they didn’t accept phonecalls past 4 and would have referred me to the out of hours team. However, they can ring me. Mustn’t be ungrateful though.
So, the outcome is this:
a) the CPN has contacted my GP requesting an urgent appointment with me and has forwarded on the psych report from A&E. My GP is going to ring me on Monday morning letting me know when she wants to see me.
b) the CPN has admitted my to the team as a temporary patient pending review in the working week. This is in case I end up in contact with medical services this weekend and so they know who to contact.
c) once I have seen my GP she will send a report to the CMHT who will then have to contact me within 48 hours for an initial assessment (this can be either face-to-face or by phone)
d) following that initial assessment the CPN will talk to the community psych about what input they think I need.
e) the CPN is also applying to the mental health trust where I was at uni originally to gain access to my notes to see what treatment I have already had.
It seems quite positive and by the sound of things by the end of next week I should be fully engaged with the mental health services. Well, as fully engaged as I ever engage. I’m still not sure about it but Rich thinks it is a good idea, my parents think it is a good idea (even though they don’t know about my recent little trip to A&E) and the university think it is a good idea.
I bit the bullet and went into uni today. I attended the lecture, made notes and listened. Then I found my tutor, apologised for yesterday and said I didn’t feel well. My tutor said I didn’t look good and I should see a doctor. I (quite embarassingly) burst into tears and blurted everything out, and they were a lot more sympathetic than I thought they would be. The tutor says they are not going to put in on my file unless I say so and are going to leave it in the hands of the CMHT for the moment.
Ruth
PS. On a morepositive note, it looks like this blog is beginning to take off. People are commenting and people are being referred to it from search engines with terms like “help getting off codeine and tramadol” and “taking 8mg codeine”. This is good news.
