Amy has complex PTSD but has seen a psychiatrist once in 10 years

As a child, Amy was often violently attacked. At 15, she was threatened with a knife. Now diagnosed with a complex SSPT, she spent more than a isolated decade at home with her mother, desperately looking for help. She only saw a psychiatrist once.

“I injured myself and I felt suicidal and I didn’t want to be alive anymore,” said Amy, who is stuck on the long waiting list for the NHS mental health treatment.

She bounded up to bottom on the list for years despite the crisis of her local hospital crisis and her GP surgery.

Amy is one of the thousands of patients across England caught in the back of mental health care.

The exclusive analysis of BBC by charity Rethink Mental disease reveals austere – and enlarged – inequality between mental and physical health care. There are 12 times more patients waiting for more than 18 months for treatment compared to those who suffer from physical conditions.

Despite four emergency ambulance calls this year, Amy remains on an indefinite waiting list for severe mental health treatment – without calendar and clearly out of the crisis.

“I am just told to wait and that the services are in trouble,” she said. “Sometimes I really feel angry and I like to cry and cry all day because I can’t continue my life.”

Amy finally took a college course last year, but was invited to go after a crisis.

“I feel like I have circles in circles and find myself in the same situation every day,” she said. Amy’s mother no longer works, in order to take care of her.

Their story reflects the harsh reality behind the statistics: lives collapse while the aid remains out of reach.

While the waiting list of physical health in England decreases rapidly, the backlog of mental health does not go down quickly and remains stubbornly high – leaving vulnerable people like Amy stuck and not sustained.

“This is an urgent awakening,” said Brian Dow, deputy director general of Rethink Mental Dusiness. “Long delays aggravate the results. It becomes more expensive to treat them. They find themselves in secondary care, which is more complex – and they fall further from work and become more dependent on the advantages.”

The analysis uses data from the monthly NHS England statistics. It includes only adults with a serious mental illness that waited for more than 78 weeks.

To be included on waiting list numbers, they must have been referred by community health health services for additional treatment or evaluation. Those who expect a speaking therapy for slight anxiety or depression are not included in these statistics.

• A list of organizations in the United Kingdom offering support and information with some of the problems in this story is available to BBC Action Line.

For the month of May, 14,586 patients were waiting for more than 18 months (78 weeks) for mental health treatment, against 1,237 people awaiting a physical health or an appointment.

Dr. Becks Fisher of Nuffield Trust’s health Think Tank said that the government had increased on a commitment to recruit 8,500 additional mental health agents, but added that access to people referred to mental health services “had not been as important” in planning and recent advice as the reduction in physical health expectations.

She said that the share of health spending to mental health was to fall during the fiscal year ending in April.

Indeed, this means that departmental financing had favored physical health services.

“Mental health problems disproportionately affect young people,” adds Dow. “It has a huge meaning and a huge economic sense to prioritize access to mental health.”

A new mental health center in eastern London offers a radically different approach – described as an example of what “good” mental health care might look like.

Open for patients without an appointment, it provides early intervention in a well-filled and welcoming space. The effects are already visible – Dr. Sheraz Ahmad, a consultant psychiatrist in the center, says that the waiting lists have already fallen considerably.

The hub has three consultants’ psychiatrists and a number of mental health specialists who can offer 24 -hour care. The team here is stable.

“We want to have conversations from the start,” said Dr. Ahmad. “Once we understand the problem, we can point people in the right direction – avoiding this vicious circle.”

Here it is not only a treatment. It is the continuity of care that helps the most. “Having access to the same clinicians who know your story every day makes a huge difference. It strengthens confidence,” he said.

“I come every day and I play billiards,” explains Moyna, who lives with schizophrenia.

“Sometimes I watch television, listen to music – and I feel better.”

He attributes to the HUB to help him avoid relapses and reduce his need for hospital care. He no longer needs an appointment to get support and care in the event of a crisis, and everything is in his neighborhood.

Installation is the first of its kind, with short -term beds. This is only one of the six planned by the NHS England of Birmingham in Sheffield, York in Cumbria.

The hubs, which are difficult to install and are therefore unlikely to be able to be considerably put on the scale, unite the voluntary sector and the NHS.

The costs are limited, psychiatrists and infrastructure being the main expenses. Most other staff members are volunteers and the East London place has been provided by a charity.

Despite growing calls for more at low cost and high impact poles like these, access to this type of care remains distant hope for thousands of people like Amy.

The Minister of Health, Stephen Kinnock, recognizes the reality of mental health care in England: “For too long, people have been abandoned by the mental health system and this has led to large arrears.”

He says the government has a plan to solve problems.

“We see more people who have challenges, and how to face this is to move the support of hospitals in the community,” he said.

In mental health care, “it’s all about prevention” adds Kinnock. This is how he thinks that the government can help reduce the waiting lists. The gap between mental health and physical health has increased since work has entered the government.

Last month, when Amy’s mother was released after a short stay in hospital, she received a consultant’s appointment for her physical condition – an unmatched heart problem – a few weeks later. On the other hand, Amy continues to wait.

“We don’t know how we are going to get out of this situation,” she said. “I want to find a job and go to university and things like that. But we are both stuck to live this life.”