In yesterday’s edition of the Evening Standard, there was an article on p. 26 about the latest Budget cuts affecting the British National Health Service. It seems that among many other substantial cuts, the government has put pressure on the NHS to seek £5 billion savings in the mental health area. As the Standard points out, this puts lives at risk when it comes to severely unstable patients with violent tendencies, and indeed there is currently a murder investigation underway, owing to a lack of trained nursing staff on the ward where the crime took place – because they let so many nurses go in an effort to save money.
Beyond this, I thought it important to inject the perspective of the ‘mental health’ patient. How many people can relate to this?:
Most of my neurological difficulties were diagnosed far too late in life, despite seeing ‘professionals’ numerous times before; I was given a cocktail of drugs that seemed to cause more harm than good; when I complained about the side effects, there was a serious lack of support or understanding; when I finally saw a proper therapist whom I felt I could speak to freely, I was informed after a year that the NHS could no longer fund my talking therapy and I would have to go it on my own…even though at long last it seemed I had stumbled on what I was really looking for all those years: a safe place to let out all my frustrations about problems I cannot cure.
To take another example: when I was pregnant a few years ago, I experienced extreme ante-natal depression. I regularly felt suicidal and would definitely consider myself to have been ‘at risk’, as they say. Yet my NHS referral to be seen by a therapist took so long that I didn’t get the call until I’d already had the baby and my symptoms had eased up!
What’s even more frustrating is that I’m originally American, so my medical stories cross oceans and nationalities – it seems that no matter which country, there was little care being offered.
I don’t want to trash every doctor out there, because, as I stated, I did manage to see a very good therapist in the end, who showed me the support and understanding I so desperately needed. She was a great relief to me, and I will always be grateful to her. But I was limited in my sessions with her. In America, the insurance companies do the same – it’s a miracle I got to see this doctor for as long as I did, so I suppose that’s one thing the NHS almost did right…but it’s still not good enough.
I realise the governments don’t have enough money to facilitate every aspect of our nations, but the priorities seem to be so wrong. We lose money on education and health care, yet we spend it on wars the country vehemently protests – and we’re meant to believe we live in a democracy. Furthermore, as the Standard rightly notes, soldiers are coming back from these wars with post-traumatic stress disorder, and we don’t have the facilities to give them the care they deserve.
I urge you to write to your MP (or congressman) and speak your mind about this gross atrocity. Perhaps it’s time to remind them that, ironically, they could do with getting their heads checked.
Vrinda Pendred, Editor & Founder of Conditional Publications
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