I hope this doesn’t come across as too angry but I am so cross and disappointed to be let down so badly by the mental health system. I had really worked myself up to my appointment today as I always do and I am sure this is a feeling that others experience too.
I last saw my care ordinator in December at my local mental health centre – it is not the centre where the care coordinators in the team I am under are based but because they are setup in a way I cannot fathom I can still request to see staff at the centre most local to me. Only in emergency situations would I ever go to the centre that is not so local.
After my December appointment I was telephoned by my care coordinator and we made an appointment for today at 3pm at my local centre. Due to the large gap between appointments I was more anxious than usual and also wanted to speak to my care coordinator about lots of important issues as I have blogged about before.
I work full time so I had booked off from 2.50pm this afternoon and made my way 5 minutes up the road to the CMHT building. I live and work within 5 minutes of here so the obvious choice. On arrival I spoke to the receptionist who I have known for years and she made a call to the office where she expected my CC to be but told she wasn’t there. She then called the other office which is half hour away and she answered and said that I should be there where she was! The receptionist passed the phone to me and instead of any apology I was told by my CC that the appointment had been made for the further away centre because I had said this was easier for me because of work! This is completely wrong and in no way logical and I now have to call tomorrow to arrange another appointment and have all that build up again.
Whilst I am happy to accept that everyone makes mistakes I am appalled that no apology was offered and that actually I was blamed for a mistake that was obviously hers. It always comes down to the staff members word against a service user’s and the staff member always seems to be believed. What made it more worrying was that I was told by the receptionist that I was the 3rd person today who was at a different location to their CC – there is definitely something wrong with the system.