Broken Mental Health Services is a National scandal and one the government should fix

Even before the pandemic Mental Health services here in Trafford was suffering now it’s completely broken with many people being thrown on the scrap heap.

A mental health worker spilled the beans when he told us in 2021 that Trafford has an alarming rate of suicides with men between 18 and 25 mostly affected, this will have increased as the years rolled on.

Community Mental Health Teams in Trafford have on several occasions told long term users that unless they are a threat to themselves or others they will not be seen, this is a dreadful situation to be in for users who have long term health conditions and now can only be supported by the GP.

Its not a fail safe either to be saying such things, it is a fact that those that take their lives do not always tell someone of their intentions so to claim they will only help with those that are suicidal is on another planet, another fact is you need to be screening people regularly to understand his or her mental state and they are not doing that.

The GP has too many things to do now with a huge amount of people wanting help to be able to give a patient with mental health issues the time he or she rightly needs and often they can only provide Primary services which is of no use to the patient.

Trafford social care are of no use to someone with moderate to severe mental health issues and are clearly not trained to deal with such things so the GP cannot go down that road for support.

It is a dreadful situation made worse because the patient here in Trafford only has a very small advocacy service which has now we learned has had its funding cut by the council so they are even more useless, an advocacy service is what is needed right now for all with mental health issues.

It is not there so what is left for all these people? the GP has his or her hands tied with little to provide for them, Trafford Social Care and Primary Care might not be right for someone with severe illness.

The only bit of feedback as to why the system is broken is because of funding, we are told there is enough staff to cope, so in the eyes of those that have been thrown in the skip it will seem like “Money or your life” which is a disgrace and inhumane letting people suffer and then the only route out for these people is to end up at a huge canal or a train line somewhere in the dead of night.

This is unacceptable in all senses of the word, we have spoken to two councillors from Manor Ward, and whilst one told us that indeed the Mental Health System was broken nothing has been said or done since.

We will not be so cruel and won’t give up fighting for those with Mental Health issues in Trafford.

If you are feeling down and deeply unhappy, if you are finding yourself sleeping more and not interested in the things you once liked you could be becoming depressed and if so you are asked to confide in someone which often helps to talk about your problems which releases the stress or call Samaritans free on 116 123 which is 24/7 and is 100% confidential and all staff are fully trained.

You could also go to Blu Sci night crisis cafe which you can find all the details here: https://bluesci.org.uk/crisis-cafe/ this is actually a one on one service and confidential.

Despite the mental health system being broken third party charities are very useful and good to approach if things are becoming or are bad with your mental health.