Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT)

I had two session of CBT and beacuse I was 'fine' in one of them, they said that they no longer needed to help and hardly supported me on the idea too

My husband was so ill with depression last year that he had two spells in Woodlands psychiatric hospital in Ipswich. He was let out too early after his first stay and six weeks later tried to take his own life, and was sectioned as a result. The medical and care staff did their best with limited resources but this should never have been allowed to happen, and the support to me has only been offered after the suicide attempt. The follow up is inadequate, and I do not feel my husband is seeing a psychiatrist or doctor often enough although he is still depressed.

Not even time given by the service to the clients. That’s if your referral is accepted

I am a professional who often works with the IDT teams. I feel that they are often quick to discharge patients that they are working with for several reasons such as being unable to contact the individual / them not engaging etc. However my experience is that often people with mental health problems find it difficult to engage and build relationships/trust with professionals, however I do not feel IDT give enough time / support to help people access their services and engage with them. I also feel that thresholds are extremely high and therefore people are often not getting the help/support they need due to not fitting into their criteria but not being appropriate for the wellbeing service. Therefore there is a gap within the system. Resources are limited and when patients are within their service, trying to see psychologists / receive therapies etc. can be extremely hard due to lack of staff, high thresholds, waiting lists.

Support for staff who are carers of someone using services is non existent, also staff who have MH needs get a terrible service. Staff try to do their best but management is very poor and in area in Suffolk social workers have very poor social care management support and supervision making it difficult for social work values to be recognised and applied in practice

Client we were supporting was asked to leave the room at their OWN MDT meeting, team chose to continually reject their needs as being "social" not "mental health"...this service user has been passed through support team and told that there is "nothing more we can do for him/you". Awful experience as a professional supporting a service user.

Daughter self harming, threatening to take her life & asking for help to take her life. Wellbeing Suffolk hub stopped referral to cahms. Would not help & wrongly parent blamed. Did a SAR to find truly shocking evidence of parent blaming & slander. Made me out to be a promiscuous woman which couldn’t be further from the truth! Getting married soon to my long term partner!

Self-referred at a time of near crisis for me. Response was prompt and I was invited to a group introduction at Lowestoft library. Stayed for all of 5 minutes - simply could not cope in that environment. As I left a really delightful man who was waiting in the wings (sorry don’t know his name but he was just wonderful) reassured me that I would receive phone contact. Subsequently I indeed had a 30 - 40 minute phone assessment session - again with fantastic support from the woman who rang. Made me feel okay for the first time in months - such empathy, kindness and understanding. Offered me alternatives- more phone support, group sessions and one-to-one sessions. I chose the latter although the assessor did explain the benefits of each type of support. Received documentation through the post to help me start the process. Had several one to one sessions with a supportive therapist. Therapist used the prescribed documentation to structure my sessions and this worked reasonably well for me. I do not need further sessions now but my anxiety is not entirely resolved. I doubt it ever will be. Yet I feel hopeful and comfortable in my situation and know I can make use of this professional service should I need further help.

I am finishing a course with them in a couple of weeks (through well-being I believe) but they say to me that I know too much about my illness for them to be able to help me. I have had poor mental health for the last 30 years. With other life threatening conditions, my mental health is poor most of the time and you need some support for when you are in hospital having treatment as anxiety can be high and plays a big part of my life, which is exacerbated by the fact that I have something else that may kill me. There needs to be a link up between services in order to support you holistically.

My GP referred me to AAT but I'm still waiting months later for them to contact me. In the meantime I'm seeing the link worker at the surgery. Initially i was given a contact number to call but when I called I was passed from person to person. Finally I spoke to a link worker who arranged my first appointment. I've also been referred to a voluntary organisation for support. It would be good if a list of mental health support organisations was available and given to people.