what to do when crisis team wont step in?

The crisis team are useless!

My brother suffers from schizophrenia and we would only call them in a crisis, not all the time. They ALWAYS told us to call the police. I would tell them I wasn't going to as my brother hadn't done anything and he just needed respite care for a rest as he wasn't sleeping and would be out ranting at the neighbourhood or something similar, which really embarrassed our mum and probably wasn't pleasant for the neighbours, but he thought they were tormenting him. Only when we got mad at the Crisis Team would they come and actually help. Respite care ALWAYS helped in these instances for my brother and was what he wanted, but they would always tell him they had no beds or some other excuse. It took him getting this unwell to have anything happen and even then, only after I demanded they do something. They would never do it when he asked and that put the whole 'know me before you judge me' campaign to shame as far as I'm concerned as if mental health professionals treated someone suffering from a mental illness like that, well, what total hypocrisy!

If they are not helping anyone, what is their job? The term 'Crisis team' is misleading IMO.

Well I have suffered many an indignity from the hands of the crisis team - the most recent when they rang me after I was discharged from hospital with a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis... they seemed to think it was a good idea for me to go for a walk - but considering I am now restricted to using a walking stick and live in a rather dodgy area, I failed to see how that would be of any benefit to my personal or mental health! Needless to say I hung up on the stupid woman!

Yes I do feel let down by the team, I was on suicide watch for 3 months, my daughter was at the time also on their call list.
The doctor looking after me was hopeless and just prescriped meds and decided that since I wasn't "extreme" at the time they could stop all calls. Bear in mind that I am paranoid and extremely anxious so was at the time thinking that they hated me and that's why they weren't returning my calls, the same time they stopped calling me they also stopped calling my daughter. She had only seen them once, and was also on watch, for the whole week before they stopped contact. They had apparently referred us both back to our GP, by the way.. neither of us were told of this happening, including my GP who had just seen me for another relapse (I could not get hold of crisis team!!). I am seeing my GP again today because I have got bad again and definately feel that he is a better choice!

i have no trust or faith in much of the system after both being a consumer many moons ago and then also working along side them, the system i deal with is so flawed and wrong is it any wonder people are killing themselves, example being that in recent times 2 people have killed themselves after escaping the unit, a top doc left after near 10yrs after having enough and the list goes on, the waste of money, over rep of bean counters and minimal frontline staff etc etc, and this is not in a city either, i am blown away that not much has changed after all these years and all the money spent on ad campaigns, glossy brochures etc seem to dupe the public that the system is functioning top notch, yeah right, as for crisis teams and the rest, i wouldn't trust most of them to care for my dogs, let alone have my life in their hands, grrrr.

Hi Fedup,

On the off chance you're still around, I just want to let you and others know that I have been doing a bit of research lately and think that I've found a doorway into the system. I can provide more details if you're interested.

For what it's worth, I have a feeling that a percentage of health workers are just as stumped as the public about what to do. The difference is, though, they should know. That's their job and responsibility.

How are you and your mother getting on at the moment?

Any unresolved issues that you want taken up?

I want to help.

Scamp