Posted by xbunny on March 21, 2006, at 10:21:17
In reply to Re: Help guys, seeing my useless GP tomorrow- » deniseuk, posted by Meri-Tuuli on March 21, 2006, at 7:19:20
Hi there, Me again!
> But there has been a mix up - apparently the NHS mental health team or whatever, has referred me to a 'community mental health practitioner' and sent a letter to the nasty little GP saying so, only he never got it. And he doesn't actually know what a 'community mental health practitioner' is anyway. So he is going to follow it up - we'll see what happens!!
A Community Mental Health Practitioner is the new name for a Community Psychiatric Nurse. CPN's (or I guess CMHP's now) are pretty useful people to see. They usually have a lot longer to talk to you than a consultant psychiatrist, can visit you at home, tend to be more sympathetic and often just as knowledgable, they cant however prescribe, or at least they couldnt when I last saw one - other health practioners like those for diabetes can prescribe and the government is trying to move in that direction so things may have changed. Regardless a CPN can say try this and you can get the gp to prescribe it. Seeing a CPN is a good first step, he/she can often get a good overview of your symptoms and goto the psychiatrist with you making life easier. A CPN can also help find you an NHS therapist and guide you into other resources which your community mental health may have, such as groups, crisis numbers and the like.
Like GP's and consultants, the quality of CPN's varies, I had a brilliant one for about 2 years, then the one I had after that was poo. Now I have none which I really regret.>
> I'm trying to find a pdoc privately (and rough idea the cost?), any ideas how you go about it? I tried the local branch of 'the priory' but the one here where I live only deals with alcohol/drug problems.The one and only time I went private I saw a psychiatrist at a Florence Nightingale Hospital which is a chain of private psychiatric hospitals similar to The Priory. Im not sure how many there are, there are several in London and one in my local area. The cost was £80 for a 45minute consulatation.
Hope this is of some help and I Hope you feel better soon,
Bunny
poster:xbunny
thread:622395
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060315/msgs/622851.html