Mental Health Appointment

[Misslovely]

My parent’s GP had made a referral to mental health services and I have heard that someone is doing the visit soon.

I’ve had problems with the GP getting things wrong before and I have requested that the referral letter is sent to me so that I can discuss things with the mental health professional before the visit.

I seem to have to go through a Care Coordinator at the surgery as there is no Memory Nurse. Again things seem to be misunderstood and I don’t really see the point of this role as I am capable of arranging appointments myself and the Care Coordinators aren’t specialised in Alzhiemer’s. I’m not sure what they are supposed to be doing except arranging appointments and being a link to the GPs. An admin person could do this.

My request for the referral letter seems to have been ignored. My parent has given me permission to access her medical notes. I find the system so frustrating!

Anyone else had these problems? Thanks

 

[SherwoodSue]

I hear your frustration, where things aren’t joined up. I would give a good go at forming a good working relationship with the care co ordinator. Rather than ask for their paperwork to go to you for correction, perhaps you could write down all the essential key points about the state of play and send that to the care co ordinator and stress must be shown to mental health team.

It’s true these roles didn’t exist once upon a time but I think it’s the very gaps that are forming in care that had lead to their existence Yes, not an expert on dementia perhaps but you are now so in partnership together you should get somewhere.

It’s so hard to get to see or talk to doctors but other roles may be easier to communicate with. I wish you well x

 

[LouiseW]

My Dad was referred to the community mental health team - the Dr went to see Dad and then called me to report that Dad was thriving, had no day to day issues, was totally independent cooked elaborate meals from scratch twice a day and had a foolpoof system for taking his medication.

I challenged him on this as none of it was true - and he said Dad had told him all these things and he (the Dr) had believed him.

The Dr had not looked around Dads house at all and had not seen the panels missing from the back door (Dads solution to loosing his keys was to remove the bottom panel from the door to crawl through)
The Dr tried to sign Dad off but I made a massive fuss and he agreed to send a nurse round every week to see how Dad really was.

After a couple of visits the team declared Dad to be a danger to himself and others and needing 24 hour supervision.

So keep trying to navigate the crazy system but do not assume that you will be kept in the loop ( they had been telling Dad he needed 24 hour supervision for a month before I found out, they just had not contacted me to tell me)

Good luck and I hope that despite the frustrations of trying to communicate with the NHS I hope you and your family manage to move forwards.