The standard of help from NHS?

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I went to an autism meet up group today and this one guy was saying how he tried to seek help for his self harming back in 2015. When he met up with two women who worked in mental health issues they did not do much to help him.

Is this basically the standard of the NHS when dealing with people that mental health problems?

Each person's mental health care needs with be different. Yes, you may have to wait a fair amount of time before you can be treated. Yes, its is also difficult to find a good match between a therapist and client. One' person's positive or negative experience with counseling or therapy isn't enough to decide if its the standard or not.

There are also too many unknowns in this situation to provide any clear answer.

Some people will have a more positive experience than others.That's true whether one is using an NHS provider or private care.

You say this person saw 2 different people? I had to and meet with several before I found one that was actually beneficial.

Some people with mental health problems say the NHS is crap or unsupportive because mental health is one of the hardest things to help someone with, particularly depression (unless you just live on antidepressants for the rest of your life).

When my mum was depressed (before she got cancer) her counsellor and her doctor were doing everything they could, from diet to CBT to other means of support, but she still said that there were no support. But there is only so much one can do to help. Depression is like looking for an answer that isn't there, and until you find that answer you can't snap out of it, which is impossible because the answer you're looking for doesn't exist. You bypass all the other answers to look for this nonexistent answer, whatever that may be.

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Sadly, yes, the NHS is struggling to survive (in particular the mental health department of which I am very aware of), it was already in the box, Covid has practically put the nail in the coffin.

However, if the guy had said he wanted to harm other people it would have been a different story, I am not suggesting this as advice, but it does appear if you are no threat to anyone but yourself you are not a priority.

CBT and other forms of Talk therapy aren't always helpful to folks on the spectrum (whether its ADHD, ASD or something else.) Sometimes different therapies are needed, sometimes different medications. When dealing with medications too, it can take a lot of trial and error before something finally helps. A lot of times, people in crisis just don't have the energy or patience to wait that long, and deal with side-effects etc.

It doesn't make the system "crap" but the system could do better supporting people while they try to help them. Again whether thats private or the NHS. The Biggest thing systems Don't do is listen. People need to feel heard, have their feelings validated, and to be told that treating mental health issues will take time.

My mum isn't on the spectrum.

Sorry, that bit was referring to the OP - I should have worded it batter.

I dunno. I've gone through 5 therapists in 3 years. I kept getting passed around because no one was qualified enough to help my specific condition. I was at crisis point just before the pandemic but it still took the nhs 3 years to get me the help I needed. During that time I lost my job, almost lost my home and had to support myself through ill gotten gains.

I've finally managed to get a therapist (nhs) who is confident and who does seem qualified to help me. Could have done with that 3 years ago though.