"Lack of appropriate support"

About: Avenue House / Recovery Team (East)

(as a service user),

I have been a patient at Avenue House/Recovery Team East for many years and contacted my Psychiatrist last year in November to ask if I could be referred for some form of therapy. At first I was diverted to local counselling services (non NHS), but I explained that although I previously found this helpful to an extent, I was at a point were I felt I needed something more in depth/intense. It was then agreed I would be referred to an outside organisation for Psychotherapy sessions. 

By the beginning of February, I still had not heard from this organisation, so I contacted Avenue House to follow this up and was told an email would be sent to the member of staff who deals with the referrals. I waited until the end of February and contacted Avenue House once again. The member of staff I spoke with liaised with my Psychiatrist and called me back, only to inform me my referral had been rejected. 

I then made contact with the other organisation, who informed me they had in fact not received a referral from Recovery Team East/Avenue House - so obviously I had been misled all this time. 

I find this completely unacceptable - Recovery Team East are supposed to be providing a service and I believe as a mental health service, they are supposed to be helping patients improve their mental health. Dealing with them has actually been detrimental to my mental wellbeing, with all the stress of having to chase things up and not being given correct information. 

I spoke with someone from the Duty team after being told my referral had been rejected and they advised me they would refer my case to the Psychology team and I would hear from them in due course. I am not confident this will actually happen, so today I attempted to call Avenue House to request copies of my medical records (as I was told everything would be documented) - I have called 4 times today so far, but no one answers the phone. Again, unacceptable. I'm not sure where I will go from here, but something has to be done for this service to improve and become fit for purpose. 

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Responses

Response from Paul Gibbs, Patient Experience Lead, West London NHS Trust nearly 2 years ago
Paul Gibbs
Patient Experience Lead,
West London NHS Trust
Submitted on 10/03/2023 at 19:13
Published on Care Opinion at 19:13


Dear memberds34

Thank you for your feedback and please accept our sincere apologies for the issues you have experienced.

This is not typical of the service we provide and ask you to please email the PALS team with your full contact details and date of birth as the service manager is keen to look into this matter and resolve it as quickly as possible. Our email address is: pals@westlondon@nhs.uk

Once again, please accept our apologies for the inconvenience caused and we look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes

Paul Gibbs

Patient Experience Lead

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