Following on from the original letter to the advocacy charities and the inadequate response received, here is the latest. I will also be sending the original letter to my Trust’s Patient Council.
Hopefully I will not have any more two-posts-in-one-day-marathons for a while.
—
Dear Admin Woman Who Wrote to Me the Other Week
Re: Advocacy
Thank you for your letter dated 4 January in response to mine of 17 December. I must confess to feeling very disappointed by the surprisingly brief response of your advocate; however, I did take the advice given, and I discussed the matter with both my consultant and, again, my clinical psychologist [actually, I didn't discuss this with the consultant, as I don't see her until Wednesday, but they will never know. C absolutely assures me that it is not the consultant's decision, but his].
Both advise me that the length of treatment provided by the psychologist is decided upon by the psychologist himself and not the psychiatrist as your colleague believed. My psychologist unfortunately maintains his position of ceasing psychotherapy after the period previously specified (now 22 weeks from today), despite acknowledging that my illness should really be treated through long-term therapy. This contradictory position is a clear illustration of what seems to be unwillingness on the part of the Trust to prioritise and allocate adequate resources to the treatment of mental illness.
In light of the above, can I please again ask that your advocacy service looks at this case. I am very concerned that if treatment is halted prematurely that not only will I have failed to have made any significant progress, but that in fact my mental health will be seriously negatively affected. Arguably, given the number of difficult issues that therapy brings up for an individual, starting but not completing a full course of therapy is more damaging to a patient than receiving no treatment at all. I would be extremely grateful for your help, as I do not feel that I have the cognitive resources to fight this battle against what amounts to medical negligence myself.
To summarise, the decision to cut short my treatment has no proper basis in a clinical analysis of my condition. The clinical literature is very clear that borderline personality disorder requires more intensive and longer duration treatment than I am being offered. I would suggest that this is an illustration that the Trust is not appropriately prioritising the allocation of resources to the treatment of mental health difficulties. I would hope and expect that this is a matter of concern to Mindwise and look forward to hearing from you soon.
Thank you in advance.
Yours etc.
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Fantastic stuff!
Whack in a copy of the NIMH Guidelines with appropriate points highlighted (seeing as how they all still write with crayons up there and need things written out for them in big capital letters)
First class post (in both senses of the phrase:)
K xx
Wow fantastic correspondence hon! We have no idea of how your healthcare system works but we do see you fighting hard to get what you need. Strong!
Excellent letter. It might be worth quoting from the NICE guidelines on BPD. And I like your 2 posts in 1 day marathons, I like your blog. Is your post about C this week private or could you send me the password? My email is bippidee at hotmail dot co dot uk, but obviously I understand if you don’t want me to read it. x
Hope you get a more favourable response this time.
Take care,
Differently
The reply was typical of a “collective professional” stand. No one wants to make any real commitments to you. It has become a hand-off, almost as if wishing that the 22 weeks could not be completed fast enough. I imagine that is what C is thinking. No one is advocating for your needs; they are leaving you twisting in the wind. Here, throughout you entire therapy to date, all of these wound have been opened up in a very raw way. As you said, to quit cold turkey will only result in a greater harm to yourself. I just do not understand why they cannot see that.