Norfolk And Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust

I've been waiting for some mental health support, I have been on the waiting list since December and have gotten absolutely nowhere. It's not good enough for the level of need.

I got referred to see them quarterly, I've got a drink problem and the psychiatrist told me that they can't help and dropped me because I'm drinking, they left me when I was vulnerable. They stopped my medication at the same time without telling me. If it wasn't for my support worker I wouldn't have got any medication or help. You tell your life story to one person which is really hard and then you never see them again and have to tell it all to someone else.

The mental health services are broken.

I've had an assessment but I'm waiting for therapy andor medication. They said the waiting list would be a year but it's been three.

I've been really struggling and I've got no support, I don't know what to do. They need more people to work in mental health and for them to get 'hands-on' with people.

I just really struggle to get the care I need. I feel fobbed off by the organisation when it comes to getting support from the AAT and getting access to my records.

I am passed from the customer service team to the AAT team to the data department. This just makes my condition worse.

They just will not communicate with me and are not very sympathetic. There is an attitude across the trust that they do not care and I don't feel they take seriously.

I've used the crisis team several times - the last time was 18 months ago and I thought they were pretty good and helpful.

I'm discharged from Gateway House and transferring to the community team. To get to this point has taken the good part of four years and I've had about seven months of treatment in that time.

My therapist left suddenly with two weeks' notice in 2021 after two years of working with them and I had to wait until 2024 for a new one. In that time I had multiple Care Coordinators, one of which was helpful.

There's not enough doctors or nurses and the crisis team is a joke, they don't care. I won't ... ring the duty desk anymore as they go through the same checklist with you even if you spoke to them the day before - it's process driven, not people driven.

I'm under the mental health practitioners at my GP's but if I tell them anything concerning I get referred back to NSFT. This makes me worse off as I'm left with no support.

I can't go to the GP and the waiting list for NSFT is unknown. So if I'm struggling I'm better off not telling anybody else I get left with no support.

I've been on the waiting list with the community mental health team for at least 18 months and I've not even been told what I'm waiting for. It's poor communication in general.

I have welfare check phone calls which I've asked to be at set times because they were just random before which isn't good when you're not feeling well. It's always a different person so I have to keep explaining everything over and again.

It's not great. Sometimes they sound like they're paying attention, other times ... they're obviously not.

I need psychiatric medication but my GP can't prescribe it and I'm waiting to be assessed so I can have it prescribed. I don't know how long that will be.

Why can't they let the GP prescribe it for a short period and monitor me while I'm waiting? My wife also really needs help but she won't have anything to do with NSFT because of how they've been in the past. She waited years to be seen, missed one call that wasn't scheduled and was taken off the list and told she'd have to go through everything again.

These calls aren't from registered numbers and you don't know when they will happen, they're from unknown numbers or random mobiles. Some staff clearly do want to help but they're stuck in a system where they can't.

I was turned down for counselling two years ago, they said I didn't need it because I hadn't cried enough in the assessment! I'm just not that sort of person, I've been masking for years, people deal with things in different ways and they should know that.

I've used Gateway House and they've been really, really brilliant. I was happy with the medication they gave me and I've recently been discharged from the service which I'm pleased about.

My husband was in end stages of alzheimers disease and was sectioned and luckily got a bed here, where he received the most wonderful care and support through to his eventual passing. I was supported and cared for in the most compassionate and supportive way through his final days.