Ramblings of a Scottish Student

Psychiatric care always seems to get a slagging, and I too have been guilty of slagging it off. However, when I think of it I have had nothing other than the best help, support and care from the NHS while I suffered from depression.

I had a supportive GP who referred me urgently to the outpatients department at the local psychiatric hospital. The GP continued to see me every week, even while I was seeing a psychiatrist on a weekly basis – just for that added support. It was probably 10 minutes of his time that could have been given over to another patient or to paperwork, but it made all the difference to me.

The team at the local psychiatric hospital were brilliant. My first appointment was only eight days (including a weekend) after the referral was made by the GP. I saw a brilliant psychiatrist who was helpful. I saw him once a week for three months, then as I started to improve it went from once a week to once a fortnight to once a month and now that I am better I no longer have to see him. Right throughout this time I saw my GP every Friday morning.

The out of hours CPNs were fantastic. Always there at a time of crisis and knew exactly what to say and do. They even sent an ambulance one particularly bad night. Though, I never actually met any of them face-to-face they were a great help.

Throughout the whole time I was depressed I only ever had one bad experience with NHS professionals and that was the ambulance crew sent by the CPNs. It was New Years Eve and the last thing they needed was a suicidal teenager on their hands. Nevertheless, they could have been more sympathetic to my obvious distress. Even the police were more sympathetic, in fact they were nothing other than fantastic (I wanted to thank them a couple of weeks later when I felt a bit better, but sadly I never knew who they were and the Police Force were unwilling to help me get a message of thanks to them).

Anyway, I thought that I’d post this just so that everyone knows that good psychiatric care can and does exist in the NHS.

As a side note, I do not hold my bad experience with the ambulance crew on New Years Eve against the ambulance service, just that particular crew. Although, in hindsight I may be being a little harsh as it was almost midnight on New Years Eve and they were no doubt cold, tired and stressed.