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Lack of communication

Posted By stardt87

"Lack of communication"

About: Somerset NHS Foundation Trust / Adult community mental health

(as the patient),

I have borderline personality disorder and was under Holly Court CMHT having self-harm intervention appointments which were due to lead onto psychological therapy which I badly need due to past trauma. I feel the appointments were not useful, but were a means to an end to get to the therapy which I really needed. However, I felt the nurse I was seeing had a very confusing way of communicating with me, using different mobile numbers to text me then not responding on the number, but messaging back on a different number. I found this confusing and disorienting and missed appointments as a result of lack of communication. We lost touch and I called Holly Court to reschedule. I was told the nurse was speaking to a manager about next steps. 

In January I was in crisis and had self harmed, so decided to chase up my treatment at Holly Court as I badly needed support. When I called them I was told I’ve been discharged from the service. I am absolutely shocked by this. I was never told and never consulted. They said they sent discharge forms but I never received anything. 

I feel it has been made clear that they don’t care and that I don’t matter. I react very adversely to feeling abandoned, neglected and to feeling thrown out like rubbish. 

I proceeded to tell the receptionist that I’d self- harmed the night before and was planning on doing it again. The receptionist said a member of the duty team would call me back. I also made it very clear I didn’t want to be discharged. 

It is now Monday and no one has called me back. I did self-harm again that day but that feels irrelevant to Holly Court. 

I called them back this morning and spoke to a receptionist who I feel lacked empathy and people skills.  I asked for a manager to call me and was told he’d email them but they don’t have phones on their desk and there are no promises as to when I’d receive a call. 

I’m at the point now that I feel nhs mental health services are run by people who don’t care about patients. I feel that they are there to tick boxes and give out crisis numbers (which failed me last time I called). I feel they don’t help and will ditch you with no care if they get the chance. 

All of my negative feelings about myself have been reinforced by Holly Court; my feeling that I’m unworthy of help, unlikeable, bad, difficult and just human trash to be dumped. They must know as mental health professionals that feeling abandoned is catastrophic for me. But it feels like they don’t care. 

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Responses

Response from Grace Blyth, Somerset NHS Foundation Trust last week
Grace Blyth
Somerset NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 21/01/2026 at 13:12
Published on Care Opinion at 13:54

Dear stardt87

It sounds like a very difficult experience you had around communication in your appointments. We recommend to clinicians when completing your first appointment, a set number of appointments is agreed and where possible these are held on the same day and time to aid communication. Thank you for reaching out to us when we you lost contact, we know this can be difficult.

Sorry you had not been informed your care had been transferred. If we have been unable to share this with you in person, we notify you in writing and inform your GP electronically. I am sorry to read you did not receive this.

Our receptionists are not clinicians and are advised to provide Mindline phone numbers for support. I am sorry if the correct information was not provided. We also accept self-referrals where a clinician will contact you. This is not crisis support, and if a more urgent response is needed, we advise you to call Mindline, and if in emergency call 999. Again, I am sorry if this was not communicated to you and understand why you would feel abandoned and rejected by the service.

Feedback is very important to us, and we will explore the above with the service to improve patient and experience and care.

Kindest regards,

Grace

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful

Update posted by stardt87 (the patient)

Hi Grace.

Thank you for responding. I appreciate the acknowledgement of how abandoned and rejected I felt. However, I feel your reply does not address the most serious aspects of my concern and is further example of clinical box-ticking as noted in my review.

I was discharged from the service without consultation or direct notification, despite having a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder and being actively self-harming at the time. When I called the service and found out I’d been discharged, I was told that I’d been written to.. but I never received anything and no one checked to see if I had.

On the same call I explicitly disclosed recent self-harm and intent to repeat it, yet no clinician contacted me following this disclosure despite telling me the duty team would be informed.

Explaining general policies, signposting to crisis lines, or stating that reception staff are not clinicians does not address the absence of a duty-of-care response on the day that risk was clearly communicated. Being told to contact Mindline or emergency services does not replace appropriate follow-up or continuity of care from the service that discharged me.

My concern is not simply about how communication felt, but about the safety and appropriateness of discharging a vulnerable patient without discussion, support, or risk review. These issues remain unaddressed in your response.

I feel that overall, your response uses non-committal language. You frame the problem as my experience of communication, rather than your failure to communicate safely. Your comment ‘we recommend to clinicians…’ is deflection by policy. You talk about what should happen in ideal circumstances rather than acknowledging that it did not happen, explaining why and accepting responsibility.

You say ‘Sorry you had not been informed your care had been transferred’ but firstly my care was not ‘transferred’ it was ended. It was certainly not transferred. I’ve had no further care in any form. Your language in regard to this is very passive: ‘had not been informed’ which implies that sending a letter equals adequate discharge for someone with bpd who is actively self-harming and has known abandonment sensitivities. You do not acknowledge that I did not consent to the discharge and I was not involved in the decision. There is no recognition that discharging someone without discussion while they are vulnerable is unsafe.

Most notably there is no offer to rectify any of the issues I’ve raised.

I hope this feedback is genuinely reviewed, as the experience has had a significant and harmful impact on my mental health.

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