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"when i asked him not to call the mental health team, his response was that he would look bad if he ended up at coroner's court and said that he hadn't made the referral even though he knew i was having thoughts of self harm"
There are certain must-act triggers for mental health professionals that compel them to report someone they think is in danger of self-harm (or harm to others). It's a trip-wire, and if you say something that fits the trip-wire criteria, they have no choice--professionally.
"he said all i had to do was to tell the team i didnt want to talk to them and then they would leave me alone. to me, that speaks more about him being concerned about his own professional image than any real desire to 'help' me. if he thought the referral would be helpful, then he wouldn't have suggested me not talking to them, right?"
You hit the trip wire (I won't talk about what it is where I am, but I think I know what to say/not say conceptually). He had to report. If he told you you don't need to talk to them, whatever that's about, it likely could mean that he didn't think you were enough at risk to require them to take steps beyond the initial one or two of reporting and contact, hence don't need to get into their care, but needed to report you. I know it seems incongruent, but reporting operates by a certain logic and then the follow-up part by another, as it seems for where you are and other places I know of. There also can be a time-delay in which your mindset changes between T referring and the team contacting you to hear what you had to say.
"essentially i think the decision was about him, not me."
Without knowing the situation first-hand, I have to disagree. Mental health professionals (almost all) don't do something drastic like reporting someone in your shoes out of self-interest. He had nothing to benefit from it. It's certain that he will have to answer to others about why and what he did. If not referring when required can harm him professionally, referring people when it's not warranted can be bad for him professionally, too. A great deal of effort and money goes into showing up at someone's house like that. No one wants to have a T in their system who does that carelessly, and that's a personal incentive for a T not to abuse the process.
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