"Poor response from Central Access Point"

It's been suggested by my mental health team at Charnwood and GP to contact the central access point when I start to struggle with my mental health outside of hours to help prevent me going into crisis.

I have had some good experiences with CAP up until the past few months. Its such a shame I feel I need to report bad experiences. The lack of compassion has been awful. Feeling rushed and that I've done something wrong by ringing is extremely triggering. I was also told that once I was discharged by my mental health team then I could use the CAP service. I am not being discharged from the mental health team so I basically took that as I'm not to ring when struggling at all.

I didn't know what to do so the next day I was able to see a GP. I didn't attempt to ring the mental health team as they would tell me to ring CAP which after being told what I was by CAP I didn't think it would be allowed. My GP helped and gave me some medication to help ease the crisis I was approaching. The GP told me to ring CAP that it's ok to do so especially as I have so much going on at the moment.

I tried the service again recently as my symptoms were getting worse. The person  who answered had no compassion, kept sighing, and at one point seemed cross that I was ringing. They then told me I need counselling even though I said I have therapy. They didn't seem to be listening to a word I was saying. I'd been through a traumatic experience earlier in the day and was struggling to deal with this on top of everything else. I think I just needed help to ground and some reassurance.

The crisis team in the past have told me to ring CAP even if just to talk to someone as I'm on my own which can sometimes make the things in my head so much louder and scarier. The person from CAP I spoke with didn't seem to be bothered. No compassion what so ever. I could hear the phone put down with a loud crash.

I don't know what I did wrong apart from call, I wasn't rude -  being rude isn't my nature because I know how damaging it can be. I don't know how I managed to get through the night I was in a worse state than when I rang. I'm still really struggling. I am now terrified to ring again because I'm scared I will be treated the same way. I felt so dismissed and that I don't matter.  It takes so much for me to reach out for help and when I do it's for a genuine reason. This is if I can get help whilst I'm aware of my symptoms it helps stop me going into crisis. I don't know what to do now.  I have left a message with the mental health team explaining my experiences because they tell us to ring CAP out of hrs.