A senior nurse at the Community Mental Health Team asked for "a quick word" the other day. He wanted to address the issue of the lack of phone support in the middle of the night (which ends in J being told to ring ambulances in order to see a mental health professional in the next city which is absurd considering that she is an ongoing outpatient with the local services etc. see posts below).
In frustration, possibly around 4am one night recently (3 hours after the recommended support lines had shut) J emailed our MP to explain how the lack of help effects her - right at the moment she was suicidal. She had explained that even Samaritans would usually advise dialling 999, if only for a "welfare check". What follows is worried paramedics telling her that she must accompany them to a hellish A&E at Leicester Royal Infirmary. This is the last place on Earth a triggered person should be made to wait for six hours for some part-time burnt out crisis team worker. J also said that she was aware of my correspondence with the MP regarding the local service failing to provide 24 hour support to mental health patients in the community as recommended by the Care Quality Commission in their last review. With J's permission the MP emailed the Chief Executive of the Leicestershire NHS Partnership Trust. It's rare to get any feedback from the LPT on anything. This is an organisation which still claims that email causes a confidential information leak risk. They've been saying this for over 20 years now. Come to think of it, they probably think the same way about phones. Anyhow, the Chief Executive passed the message back down through the LPT and everyone was suddenly taking the matter seriously. Except that they weren't really. The senior nurse felt that this was just a case for a "need for clarity" on their part. Apparently, we hadn't realised that we could leave a message on the voluntary sector answer phone (run by the newly contracted Richmond Fellowship) after 1.30pm when it was no longer manned, and that it would be checked /every hour/ and then somebody would call the sufferer, I mean, caller, back. Right?
We explained in less then polite terms that this was still a fucking shit system, of which even the local emergency services were unaware.
Nonetheless, the short term solution was to provide a clearer message on CMHT's answer machine and the Richmond Fellowship's answer machine.
I again suggested, as with previously useless phone lines in the region (SAP/CRHT) that managers "cold" called them to test them. The senior nurse, like other professionals before, laughed and said that he didn't work at night and so couldn't do it himself (see how fast that not-my-problem--empathy-cut-off switch is thrown?). I pointed out that there were plenty of nurses at the Bradgate working night shifts, not to mention other employees on call across the region. He and J's CPN then sympathised about phone holding queues within the service and also liked the idea of sending senior professionals down corridors at the Bradgate without pass cards to deal with baffling intercom politics, since they themselves had been locked in corridors.
Incidentally, the MP also sent a very warm and caring follow-up email to tell J how valued she was and how important it was to stay alive and safe.
So here's a tip. Next time you are in crisis and the support systems are more triggering then helping, why not email your MP? After all, it's a direct line that actually works in the middle of the night.
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