[Chronic]

Hopefully this is the right place to post this...

For those of you in the UK, do you have any experience with therapy under the NHS? I have only ever had private therapy where access to the T has been direct, i.e, no recpetionist/secretary, I could phone/email therapist between sessions etc, and there has been no limit on the number of sessions I could have.

I have been offered therapy by my pdoc but I just wanted to see what your experiences have been like- are there more restirctions, can you go weekly etc?

Thanks

[Christina86]

Bumping this up!

Sorry, I'm not in the UK (or the US even!) but hopefully someone is able to help.

[Melbadaze]

Therapy on the NHS is pretty 2nd class, well thats been my experience, in the end I had to go private if I wanted to get anywhere.

[silentandscared]

I had alot of therapy on the NHS and have had a mixture of both good and bad. My latest therapy was for 2 and a half hours a week but there was very limited contact between the sessions. It was ok and T was the best of them all................unfortunately when she left she handed us over to someone who hadn't got a clue about what was needed and therapy become very painful. I stopped going and since then have had great problems trying to find a T to offer what we need.

Speak with your pdoc and see if he knows any answers to your questions and if he does you a referral make sure you have a list of questions that you can ask before you embark on it. In my experience there is not much contact or email etc between sessions.

Good luck in your search

SAS

[Fartraveler]

http://www.siriusproject.org/

These folks are really nice, and they're UK-based. They know all about NHS. It's a self-harm help site, but not triggering, and, like I say, they're great.

-Far

[pegasus]

Hi Chronic, there used to be a massive waiting list to get to see a psychologist or be referred for therapy.

These days there is the new Improving access to psychological therapies programme which is supposed to make it easier for people to get the support they need. Your GP or Pdoc should know about this. http://www.ic.nhs.uk/services/mental...therapies-iapt

From what I know these are CBT based therapies and initially they offer a set amount of sessions once a week which can be extended depending on need.

[Polperro]

I too have found it very hard to find support/help from the NHS. I will not go into my personal details here.

Suffice to say I have been trying to get help for 5+ years all they seemed to want to do is drug me up.

I changed my GP and made it clear how I felt about life and things.....
I evenutally ended up seeing a counsellor for 3 months.....but with due respect she was rubbish......

Pegasus helped me looking at private counsellors (thank you Pegasus).... but I couldnt really afford the treatment so I was left the sham that was the NHS.

Well I told the GP how I felt again and was put in contact with Rightstep a third party company and have received 6 months of intensive deep CBT.

I must say that I am Much, Much better now......

So sorry for all the preamble:
The NHS as I understand it are now centralising Mental Health service and things should get much better......let's face it they couldnt get much worse.

So go talk to your GP and explain in detail your issues I actually supplied a written list of events in my life that had an effect on me and how I felt.
This seem to trigger a response from my GP initially to up my meds I actually refused and said I wanted help and this was when I was referred to Rightstep. I am not sure whether they are national or just local to my area.

Enough of my Waffle - I hope in some small way that it helped.
If you want to talk feel free to send me a private message.

Hugs to you, know that people here do care.
Polperro

[Chronic]

Thanks everyone, this has really helped. From your comments I think I will get an assessment before I commit to therapy on the NHS. This was what I was worried about- the waiting lists, lack of good therapists etc

Far- I have had a look at that site and it is really helpful- loads of useful info that I can take to my GP

[sarek]

On this same subject, does anyone know how useful this organisation is?

http://www.sane.org.uk/

[pegasus]

Yes good and so is this organization http://www.mind.org.uk/