Over promises and under delivers
My daughter was discharged from Wedgwood in May 2019. They wanted to discharge her earlier but we wanted to make sure that everything was in place for her aftercare. We might as well have let them discharge her earlier. She has been an inpatient for a year and has come back into the community. There has been very little to help with the transition. She has met her care co-coordinator twice in this time, once for half an hour and the second time for an hour. We like her care co-ordinator and think she is good at her job within the the terrible constraints of a system that is not fit for purpose. By law, my daughter is entitled to aftercare. Meeting her care co once every 10 days to 2 weeks is not enough. Being referred to courses at some point in the future is not enough; making an appointment to meet the crisis team at some point in the future is not enough. The courses at the recovery college might be useful for first time people suffering a mental health crisis but not for someone who has spent a year on a psychiatric ward. She was told that what she needed is DBT. Where is it? I don't want to hear that it isn't available locally. It has to be. Everything works at a snails pace. The care and support that she needs should have been ready and waiting for her as soon as she was discharged. I now understand why so many people end up back on a psychiatric ward.