Posted by ramsea on June 9, 2006, at 0:58:56
In reply to Thanks for response everyone!, posted by Tom Twilight on June 8, 2006, at 13:39:25
Hi, I live in the UK and have also lived in the US, using mental health services there too. My own experience is that both places offer up very varied care---it can be superlative, supportive care--quite user friendly--and it can be middling care, good enough--and it can be neglectful and/or harmful care.
Really the stories I could tell about UK/US services would be at times funny and at times frightening.
Most recently I was gobsmacked in the UK by a young doctor at ER (and I do NOT make a habit of going there--it was toxicity from lithium, which was NOT caught at the time by the ER doctor and in addition, I had been told to go there by the GP receptionist because I had hurt my finger badly as well, with very painful muscles and joints and clumsiness, etc).
I told this ER doc I needed badly to consult with the on-call pdoc about my meds, and mentioned how sick and depressed I had been getting--and he laughed. "We all get depressed", he said, "I know I am. Tell me, what should I do to get better?" I advised him to try a lightbox.
But at least he wasn't like the public health clinic pdoc I saw in the US many years ago who upped my anti-psychotic because--as he told the nurse who was sitting in with me--the shirt I was wearing was too orange!!! I am serious. He didn't even address his words to me, but talked as if I wasn't there. I won't go into the more disturbing examples.
In the UK you could try private pdocs, as at the Priory clinic in Birmingham (google it). My results with such places is mixed. The quality of pdocs is not necessarily higher---most private pdcos also work for the NHS so if they are good or not so good they are likely to turn up in both places offering the same type of care.
And the relationship between the private and public sector isn't clear. One private pdoc, several years ago, prescribed Xanax for my social anxiety (which can be disabling). I could fill it privately a few times, but then the GP was supposed to take over. I took the script to my NHS GP and got shouted at. He literally shouted that he wasn't going to give anyone Xanax, etc., and acted like I was the one who had come up with the idea and like I was "drug-seeking". Now I had never even heard of Xanax at this point and didn't have a clue. When I tried to tell this to the private pdoc who was the prescriber, she didn't want to know and was also rude.
(Note**They since have banned it from the NHS formulary anyway. Truth is, Xanax and me didn't get on at well--it precipitated mania in my bipolar brain. But I am NOT anti-benzo, or anti-Xanax--and take Ativan as needed in severe anxiety episodes.)
In fact the very best pdocs I have seen ever in my 40-something years of life, and I've seen a fair few in the UK and US, have been UK NHS pdocs. So it's kind of the luck of the draw. I wouldn't be deadset against the UK, it just varies a lot.
ramsea
poster:ramsea
thread:653699
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060604/msgs/654718.html