"Not willing to help"

My son has long suffered from anxiety, low self esteem and depression. In desperation he turned to drugs as a means of escape and sadly he found himself addicted. This fills him with shame and self disgust. He is now on a methadone program but still has occasional lapses into drug use when he is unable to cope with his emotions. He finds day to day living very hard and struggles to find the will to get out of bed on most days. He has self harmed and thought of suicide. He is desperate for help with his mental health which he sees as the root cause of his addiction and which is preventing him from leading a meaningful life. He was referred to the mental health team at Greenacres by his GP. He attended an assessment interview with a CPN. I accompanied him to Greenacres as he would not otherwise have made it. The CPN began the assessment by asking about drug use and he admitted that he still had occasional lapses. She then spent almost one hour having my son describe intimate and traumatic events in his life, which he found very difficult and very upsetting, and then concluded by telling him that he would not be offered help with his mental health until he had dealt with his drug use and was no longer using.

My son went into the assessment interview filled with hope that he was at last going to get the help he so desperately needs and came out in tears, distraught and broken hearted. He could not understand why he had been put through a traumatic interview if he was going to be refused help anyway on the basis of something that had been discussed in the first five minutes. He, and I cannot understand why he is being refused help with his mental health. He is already engaging with the drug team as he wants to be free of addiction but he also needs help to address the underlying causes of his addiction.

I believe that NICE guidance is that addiction problems should not be a barrier to access to mental health services but the very opposite seems to be the case at Greenacres. I feel that my son has been badly let down by the Greenacres mental health team.