A brutally honest letter to an MP [politician] (who can hopefully help us all!)

Below is an email I sent to Nick Ramsay (MP). It is a brutally honest 'from the heart' email! No tact or editing! As the message is so important.

I cc'ed a few friends, my mental health advocate and my GP practise manager!!!

I now look forward to waiting to see whether people like Nick will rise to the challenge of helping people like 'us'.

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Hi Nick

First of all I have cc'ed my mental health advocate (D------ -------) and
my GP practise manager. Note that I am speaking the truth and not
editing it here. I feel exposing the truth is the only way to get
support for me and others. Warning the truth may hurt but it needs to
be out there!!!

I was told by my mental health advocate D------ -------, that you have an
interest in mental health.

I suffer from mental health myself and I know a lot of other people
also that have suffered in this way. Over the last 20 years I have
been met with complete and utter medical negligence regarding my
mental health, as have so many other people I know.

Were you aware that the only people who get help are:

1. People who have attempted suicide (and failed) - they get help from
the community mental health team.
2. People with very mild depression who see their GP - they get the
pathetic 6 week CBT help (note that only 7% of people who see
counsellors actually feel like they had some element of success!!!!)
3. Rich people who can throw money left / right and centre for
healthcare. I know people who thought the NHS was pathetic so paid for
private therapists. When I worked in IT I paid over £20,000 in
healthcare outside of the NHS to try and fix my mental health. I only
did this because of how useless they were.

Were you aware that latest research shows that anti-depressants are no
better than a placebo sugar pill? i.e. they don't work in and of
themselves, but only as a placebo. This is shocking!!!! These
pharmaceutical companies are making a fortune out of placebos.

I had to threaten my GP surgery and my community mental health team
with legal action in order to try and get help. I had a strong case
regarding medical negligence. I did see two psychiatrists at the CMHT
who attempted to bully me (some people try and do that when you've
exposed their negligence). Luckily my mental health advocate was
there.

The CMHT, in their reply after the assessment, just gave me two
helpline numbers and information about a voluntary organisation (so no
better than google there then!!!! What a waste of time and money).
Anyway I did go and see the voluntary organisation (Hafal) only to be
told that I needed an official diagnosis. My question is why didn't
the CMHT realise this? They should either have not recommended this
organisation or they should have diagnosed me as a necessary
requirement. I met up with Hafal twice for two hours at a time, so
that got my hopes up... then as usual BANG and KERPOW! Let down...
AGAIN! So I kicked up a fuss with this voluntary organisation and said
that they were failing people. This made the woman try harder, and she
said that on this occasion she would let my GP sign the registration
forms instead. So I handed these forms in to my GP surgery only to
receive a letter a few days later saying that my GP is off sick and
none of the other doctors know me well enough. So guess what... I'm
now back to square one.

Basically people with mental health issues have to FIGHT to get the
help they need. Hardly any other illness is like this!!!!! What the
f$%^ is going on Nick? Seriously? You might notice some anger here,
but in all honesty are you surprised after 20 years of complete and
utter negligence. My life has been destroyed by mental health issues.
I went for help so many times and yet didn't get the support I needed
so my condition deteriorated over time. I definitely deserve HUGE
compensation here... we are talking a HUGE pay out.

I know another friend who has social anxiety (and bipolar) and can't
go out his house. He had to beg his GP to do a home visit. He was told
that they couldn't send a psychiatrist because it would cost too
much!!! Imagine for a second if there was someone with a physical
based life threatening condition stuck in their house. What would
happen. Would they be told it would be too expensive to help them.

The NHS is totally negligent in regards to mental health. The
government knows NOTHING about mental health, neither do most
psychiatrists to be fair. A lot of people end up killing themselves
due to this poor support. The NHS is totally negligent. My friend has
also been to his GP so many times of the decades only to be blocked at
EVERY single turn.

I have been blocked at EVERY turn also. I am writing a blog to expose
everyone who is negligent. Sadly I'm only waiting for British Libel
law to force my blog to close. Freedom of speech and democracy don't
exist in our country. That's a topic for another time. I am just sick
to death of 'Great' Britain. It is actually Great for a lot of things,
however for mental health it is awful. Indeed studies show that rich
nations who throw money at mental health are worse than poorer
countries. This can only mean that not only are our attempts not
working, they are actually doing more damage than good.

I want to stop this so that people like myself and others can get
support. I will not stop campaigning against this until I die. People
are fighting a war known as mental health, and the biggest battle of
all is the system that is 'supposed' to help.

The only professional who has helped is my mental health advocate, who
needs an award. I am not joking, this lady sometimes finishes work at
1.30 in the morning helping people. That in itself shows lack of
funding and support in this area. The people trying to help others are
cracking. This really is a broken society! Sorry to sound all Daily
Mail!

I hope you have time to help
Regards

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