"I don't feel my mental health problems are taken seriously"

I feel that mild mental health problems, like agoraphobia, stress and mild depression, are not fully understand by mental health teams, sadly. I feel that unless one is severally mentally ill, the community and local mental health team do not take those with much milder illness seriously.

It's my experience that no one from the mental health team or recovery services are willing to be flexible around one's needs. Certain staff may be ok but I feel that a majority of the people I've encountered just stick to the book.

I got a community support worker trying to do exposure therapy - always thought that kind of therapy must be done by a trained therapist, not a community support worker.

I feel like there is no willingness to understand the patients needs and take physical, social, as well as mental health problems into consideration when doing assessments.

In general, I think I am receiving very very poor support and lack of understanding from most members of team that I deal with. I've seen several specialists, who I have felt do not know what to do and have shown little compassion.

In my opinion my local mental health team does not like people making complaints about their services - I felt like they tried to blame me, even to the point of making me out to be the problem. Only because I am mentally ill, doesn't mean I do not understand or am stupid, but the mental health services have made me feel stupid.

I feel there is a lack of support and understanding for those with less serious mental health problems.

In my experience the staff involved with my care have shown no creativity or flexibility.

I feel there has been a lack of communication from the staff I've dealt with.

I feel that staff have made most of the decisions for me, I felt my input was not put forward.