Havering Community Recovery Team - Romford

Stephen R.

So we often hear how poorly these sort of Mental Health NHS units are operating but that has not been our experience. Their response to a 111 communication the night before has been second to none with particular praise necessary for Lucy the practice manager. Things may not always be perfect in these sorts of challenging crisis situations but they are clearly absolutely trying their best at this unit, so credit where credit is due.
Updated Sept 2024. The team try their best and the practice manager in particular but there seem to be insufficient resources and regular change over of staff which doesn't help matters. There is no apparent means to permit someone to access residential hospital resources whatsoever if they are in crisis.

Lauren K.

Some of the staff that work here are nice people but they are few and far between. A lot of the staff that work here are horrible people that made me feel worse. Some staff would visit and would repeatedly ring my doorbell and harass me until I opened the door. On one occasion the woman continued this behaviour for ten minutes while I was in the shower. She didn't have an appointment with me and showed up randomly while I was getting ready. I had to answer the door to her with only a towel wrapped around me to stop the incessant noise of my doorbell ringing and her banging on my door with her fists. This was ironically done by a person with the title of 'Care Coordinator'. She didn't care at all. She was a nasty bully that was taking advantage of my situation.

When I was first referred to this service I was assured I would be assessed for ADHD. I pushed for this every few months; was assured it would happen and three years later when I was discharged it still hadn't happened. I will now have to save up and pay for a private assessment for ADHD.

All these people want to do is shove tablets in your face and shut you up. If you challenge them at all; cry in front of them or get angry with them they threaten you with being sectioned or being given more medication. These people are hideous, uncaring and incompetent.

The complaints procedure is also a joke that gets you absolutely nowhere. They definitely think that their struggles financially justify their behaviour and they take advantage of their patients. They also can't keep hold of staff which again proves how toxic of an environment this place is.

I had to start taking my husband to appointments with me because I distrusted them so much and felt they didn't listen to me. It was only then that things started to get better as they didn't dare threaten me with a hospital admission or extra medication while he was there.

If you have the misfortune of finding yourself in the "care" of these people, take someone you trust with you to appointments with the drs and care coordinators and keep a record of everything.

Gemma P.

Broken system, inadequate care. If I treated my clients the way this place treats their patients and families then I would be out of business, but as they work for the NHS they will still get paid their wages with our hard earned money even when they do their jobs badly. I do not have 1 good thing to say about this place or the people that work in it, the so called 'mental health professionals' hide behind the administrators, letting them do the dirty work. This so called 'community team' discharge patients who are in the community because of 'no engagement', no my mum does not want to engage because she is mentally ill, she needs to go into hospital to have her meds changed because she is taking ineffective mental health drugs, but she won't go willingly because she is mentally ill and traumatise from her many years in Warley Hospital, but they dont have the skills and experience to find a way to help her, they discharge her and use the mental health act as a get out clause. Because she can dress herself appropriately for the weather they can't section her, just one indicator they use when deciding if they can section someone, there are more but they dont explain anything, so despite her not being able to care for herself, living in squalar, and being vunerable in the community and deteriating, she is just left to it. It's a completly broken system, and this service does not support family members, they do not share or explain anything, and they would prefer it if you wasnt involved. The lack of care they show when I deal with them actually makes me ill.

My mum was in Whitechapel hospital for 2 months, I made this place aware of that, at Whitechapel she had a nurse with her 247, she was supervised the whole time, that was the perfect oppourtunity for this service to go and see her and put something in place for when she came out, but they chose not to visit her, because she was not in the borough,

So I have a mentally ill mum, living in squalor, vunerable, and old and I dont know how to help her, social services, the council, the NHS, the GP, the police, she is known to them all but no-one wants to help.

One of the MH Nurses from here said to me on one occasion they actually did get eyes on my mum 'your mum said some really nasty things to me, it really upset me' my response was 'you try having her as a mum'. In this business you put aside your own feelings as a professional and deal with the patient/family member, an unprofessional comment that clearly demonstrated that the person should not be in the job. I would be suprised if anyone in this service or connected with this service has any experience having a family member who suffers with mental illness.

Any mental health professionals reading this, psychologist, mental health nurses, department leads, unless you have had a close family member with mental ilness in your life you cannot begin to understand the pain and trauma it can bring seeing a loved one mentally ill, add that to that a broken service and the issue is doubled. Please have the courage to speak with family members, please explain as best you can, please communicate, please care.

Lucy N.

My mum got transferred from her mental health support / care worker to this shambolic place, over 6 months and her replacement has not made contact. After leaving various urgent messages they don’t return calls.

Paula T.

There is no duty of care for people who are suffering from mental health from this service the staff are rude and are making people feel worse with their illnesses they should all be sacked. They have no idea or compassion for their clients who lets be fair keep them in their jobs !! All they do is blame their line manager the service manager

samantha H.

My experience with the people that work here barr a handful is they havent a clue about how it feels to suffer from mental health.I have actually been held back in my recovery it has been shameful.

Shari L.

Appalling

Terri G.

The staff do not care about their clients. They close ranks and will not address any issues.