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Psychiatry-UK 2023-03-13 Person 4 5 0

The waiting list is a bummer, but it is what it is. (And isn't the fault of Psychiatry-UK, and will likely be in a similar state no matter the service you choose) Being seen via video made things a lot easier than if I had had to attend anything in person, I felt really at ease with Dr. Igboekwu, who conducted my video assessment for ADHD, in fact I'm currently waiting to be assessed for ASD through Psychiatry-UK as well, and if at all possible I'd like to see him again for that. :) The main form of communication being typing back and forth through messages via the official website, was also extremely accommodating for me, as I suffer with social anxiety when it comes to making phone calls. Sarah Purchase who was responsible for my titration period, which, for me was over the course of a year was ABSOLUTELY awesome, so awesome in fact, that I wanted to mention her by name <3 she read many an anxiety produced note and always got back to me professionally and promptly. The only reason I'm giving 4 stars instead of 5 for some aspects, is that, shortly after my video exit interview - the way I would need to request my medication was in the process of being transferred over from the care of P-UK to my GP. It was around this time that my phone broke and I lost sim card and therefor my number - my number, is required to login to the patient portal and have any contact with my psychiatrist, prescriber or any of the customer service team. I was essentially locked out. (Again, this in itself, of course, isn't Psychiatry UK's fault. Every 2FA I had setup was connected to that number, a number I'd purposefully kept since a teenager as I suffer from working memory issues and it just made things easier that way, well, for a while) This seems... flawed? Like, surely there could be some security questions? Or perhaps an option to link a backup email and or phone number of a partner or similar, in case of something like this happens? I understand that there are data protection laws to navigate but, I got my partner to provide feedback with regards to my ADHD a few times and so, there's wiggle room for something, potentially? I emailed the support address multiple times, spoke with multiple people, so - someone would take over, or see an email from me first - and ask me the same things... all for security reasons, which is fine and dandy but... it took nearly a MONTH in total for them to okay my new number and then for me to able to access the service again! (In that month MY WHOLE LIFE got worse, honestly... it was devastating for me. It made me realise, even more, how important getting on the right medication has been for me.) Unfortunately, in that time - I had gotten confused (easily done at the best of times, let alone when I'm unmedicated) with regards to when and how I'd now need to go about requesting and receiving my medication. I tried ordering it from my GP as I thought that that would now be the correct way to proceed... It took them 5 days to notify me that the service had not yet officially been moved over, and that this was in fact, not the way to proceed... After that - my phone broke and I lost my sim... (That, of course isn't PUK or my GPs fault - it's just, the catalyst that brought about my seeing the cracks in the system...) For a neurodivergent person, especially one that is now not medicated, and came off of their medication abruptly, due to a multitude of unforeseen circumstances, everything got worse, so so so much worse - I wont go into details here but, it's such a shame also because my entire experience with P-UK up until this incident was nothing short of fantastic. What I want to bring up is -the fact that I was reaching out for help, again and again and again and it felt like a betrayal? Because these people know how badly I struggled / struggle and that I deal with executive dysfunction, object permeance, working memory issues and more. So having something like this happen, for someone who's neurotypical, maybe it wouldn't have been a big deal or taken as long to deal with, but I did my best and - obviously, my best isn't good enough due to literal neurochemical imbalances so. Yeah, this part sucked. Being diagnosed and finding the right medication for me through this service had genuinely been LIFE CHANGING though, so - I think that's the main takeaway. They could just improve this particular area and I'd be shouting from the rooftops. x Overall, I thoroughly recommend Psychiatry-UK - everyone I've had contact with has been really helpful and lovely - obviously, I was frustrated with the email back and forth because it seemed wholly unnecessary and it could have potentially put me in danger had I stopped taking my medication (which I did, as I ran out) and something bad had happened (fortunately, it didn't) If it had, I wouldn't have been able to get in contact though... as things stand right now. Sorry for the mini essay... I'm always like this, haha - poor Sarah, can you imagine?! Bless her.