Improve mental health care plea

A woman bravely fighting mental health problems is appealing for more help to be made available to fellow sufferers.

Polly McIntosh, 21, is blighted by inner demons.

Since her teenage years she has faced a daily battle with severe depression, mild bi-polar and borderline personality disorder.

Each day she can feel depressed and suicidal.

Polly, of Rutland, has seen therapists and doctors locally, and also in Oxfordshire where she lived for a spell, but feels too many use outdated techniques to combat mental health issues.

She said: “I have hurtful voices in my head and I can’t control my depression.

“I rely very heavily on medication.

“Mental health is a huge deal to people but we are quite backwards as a country in terms of dealing with it.

“It is quite frustrating trying to get help.

“Some people still think you should just pull yourself together but depression can affect people in many, many different ways.

“If someone says they are really struggling with mental health they need to be supported.

“Many doctors though seem to be using treatment methods which are 20-years out of date.

“There is no magic cure for mental health problems and I know change is not going to happen overnight, but we need to take steps forward.”

She claims that an incident last Friday while on a night out drinking in Peterborough when she tried to commit suicide proves her point.

At the end of the night Polly became very upset and took 14 of her Diazepam tablets.

They called 999 but an ambulance failed to turn up, Polly says, and when she went to the hospital and doctors she claims staff were unsympathetic.

Dr Dan Petrie, a partner at St Mary’s Medical Practice, on Wharf Road, in Stamford, admits more could be done on mental health issues. He said patients could wait for months to see therapists.

He said: “Sadly there is a lot of rhetoric from the Government about mental health but the funding doesn’t materialise.

“Every week patients are waiting longer for mental health care than they would for an equivalent physical problem.

“There is no sense of urgency even when people are struggling day to day.

“GPs aren’t therapists but we could be trained to do more.”