Continuing with BBC Three's
It's a Mad World season, last night saw the broadcast of a documentary entitled
'Failed by the NHS.' The doc, presented by
Jonny Benjamin, covered the stories of 7 young people affected by mental illness who felt that they had been let down or abandoned by healthcare provision.
What could have been a very effective and interesting investigation into the availability of services for those with mental illness was in all honesty a bit lacklustre. I was disappointed in many respects, firstly the majority of the hour was spent with anecdotes, presented as individual cases where the care that was inadequate. This is undoubtedly a problem, there are difficulties in accessing care across the country, but there was little perspective or context given to the true gravity of the problem. It's terrible that people were sent away from A&E feeling like their concerns weren't listened to, and that people may have ended their own lives because of feeling unsupported, but how many feel this way? How significant are these problems? How common are they? What can be done about it? In the end I feel like the documentary did nothing, I was underwhelmed.
The program consulted one doctor,
Dr Ranj Singh, who was very eloquent and clearly passionate about the shortcomings in the availability of mental health care for young people. He covered the issues of
falling in the gap between CAMHS and Adult Services, of
extended waiting times for treatments such as CBT, of people turning up to A&E presenting with self-harm and
not receiving adequate psychological assessment, of
cuts to funding, of GPs
misdiagnosing or misunderstanding mental health, of
ineffective links between different departments and of an
over-worked, under-funded and over-stretched NHS. He had the statistics: only
half of those admitted to A&E with self-harm were given a psychological assessment, and just
4% of those who transitioned from CAMHS to Adult Services would describe the transition as smooth. These findings are shocking and needed further investigation. His input was what gave the hour-long documentary its substance and kick. His air-time? About 10 minutes. The rest was padding. I feel like they could have done so much more with it, and spoken to professionals about the reasons behind apparent failings and what they would do about it.
Jonny's meeting with MP and Care Minister Norman Lamb left me angry, obviously we didn't see the full extended cut
(or I sure as hell hope that wasn't it) but considering the entire program had essentially concluded that budget cuts were placing a strain on the care the NHS can provide it seemed ludicrous that Lamb wasn't challenged on this. Here is this amazing chance to air the grievances you have and to put pressure on the man-in-charge to improve mental health care, you're backed up by statistics, you're filmed by a television crew, and yet nothing is made of that opportunity.
My last little nit-pick is the title. 'Failure' is such a strong word, and I don't think it was at all fair to use it. I
know that people feel let down by the health care that's available. I
know that there are some doctors who don't understand mental health as well as they should. I
know that young people have to shout to be heard, I literally did have to shout and scream until my face went purple. I
know that the gap between child and adult services is fraught and unnecessary. I
know that there are excessive waiting times. I
know that, unfortunately, some people have ended their lives because they've not felt like they had anyone to help. I know all of this from personal experience, and from the experience of friends. But you know what? Yes, I had to yell at a psychologist to get her to listen to what I was really saying. Yes, the transition between CAMHS and Adult care was, actually, virtually non-existent. Yes, I was misdiagnosed and mismedicated. Yes, I faced long waiting times.
In the end though, I have been
saved by the NHS. The vast majority of doctors and other specialists I have met along the way were beautifully understanding and helpful. I have had access to medication, and complex treatments and therapies
for free when in other countries I would have never been able to afford it. The National Health Service has got a terrible job. People get ill, and if they aren't perfectly fixed straight away then it's the doctors' fault and oh isn't the NHS
failing us how dreadful how dreadful. I blame the system and behind the scenes bureaucracy for the hiccups in my treatment, and I blame the politicians for the cuts to funding. Unfortunately there will always be cases where people fall through the gaps, and where people have to wait to get treatment, but that does not mean that the NHS has
failed you it means that the NHS is trying very desperately to help you but doesn't have the resources or training or money or people there to do it. The NHS cares, and understands, and is struggling along valiantly. It is not failing anyone.
