Thursday, May 31, 2012
From emails received-what is the point of being offered services that drop us quickly?
Hi there
I'm a service user of clinic 7 and am dismayed at its proposed closure. I have suffered from depression and anxiety since my adolescence and have experienced many types of treatment. I was referred to Dr Malizia 2007 when I was depresssed and suicidal. My GP tried to refer me to the community mental health team but they refused to accept the referral, despite me being a single parent with no family or support in Bristol. According to my GP they will only accept referrals if the client is psychotic or schiophrenic, this applied both then and now. I believe that the Psychoparmacy team, and Dr Malizia literally saved my life and provide a unique and invaluable service both for patients and for GPs with nowhere else to refer depressed patients.
I have contacted PALS at both AWP and Bristol PCT and they have advised me that a letter will be sent out shortly informing patients of the closure and providing individual alternatives. I am very curious about these alternatives as I feel from past experience that they dont exist.
Please let me know if there is anything I can do with you to help fight this closure. It seems to have been triggered by the loss of funding from the university and I wonder if its worthwhile contacting them also? I have discussed thsi with my GP and he is writing to Bristol PCT so it maybe useful if other people could also encourage their GPs to write in. My only other thought is whether we can demand a full consultation before the clinic is closed, but I dont know if AWP is obliged in any way to do this. Let me know what you think
regards
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I too was refused help by community mental health in 2003, altho' finiite psychotherapy was offered following a second referral in 2011. This delay has been grim, fortunately Clinic 7 accepted my GPs referral at first request. With the move from Grove Road to Gloucester House in May 2012 it is already apparent how much less accessible the community teams are. My GP has commented the same, when he has tried to phone them. Thus I hope it is not suggested that community mental health will take over from Dr Malizia;.The continuity + confidence of the specialist psychopharmacology unit is crucial when your world is crashing about your ears. Their input has helped keep me working and paying taxes, so I suspect they are actually pretty cost effective too. What happens come September, it is not long away?
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