Valley Gardens Resource Centre - Harrogate

jack C.

This place, caused me a lot of emotional turmoil and nearly pushed me over the edge years ago. I thought I would get myself referred again, to give them a second chance. And they failed again. I received a letter from them, at the beginning of August, saying they can't get hold of me, so I rang them, and it turns out, they have the wrong number for me. And yesterday looking at my online doctor records, I discovered a recent letter from this mental health team sent to my doctors saying as I didn't contact them in the 14 days they've cancelled my referral. A total disgraceful service

93NT4X15

Pretty terrible overall. I was under the 'care' of a care coordinator for some time here and neither of those aspects were fulfilled. When I was referred again, I requested a different care coordinator. I spoke to someone who seemed reasonably understanding and we made an appointment for them to call me the next day. The call never came and in the months since, whenever I've tried to reach them, they have conveniently been 'out of the office'. After numerous attempts, I've given up and have had no contact from them since the appointment was made. It's safe to say that the best you can expect is for them to do the absolute bare minimum. Not worth the bother.

William G.

Shocked at what I’ve witnessed from this place. Patients left in crisis with no care plan for months, staff excusing each others negligence. Told you’ll get a call back that day, don’t hear back. Call back the next day again told the same thing. Vulnerable patients have their symptoms used against them instead of trying to help. Lying on notes to back up their lack of care. Crisis team left notes and not responsed to. One patient has been left in crisis since January with empty promises, an argumentative psychiatrist and pretty much no understanding of how to treat Trauma survivors. Not only has Valley Gardens resource centre neglected my family members care, they’ve made it worse with 19 months of empty promises which he’s almost lost his life at the hands of. This service needs investigation immediately.

Jon

Harrogate mental health services are not fit for purpose! They have done absolutely nothing to support or help me with my mental health - all they have done is treat me in the worst possible way making me feel worse than I already was & abandoned me when I needed help. I’ve been left with no support just because i couldn’t comply with their tickboxing exercises when going through a very difficult time. Have been treated appallingly since day one. They should be investigated, as vulnerable people shouldn’t be bullied & made to feel like this!

Roberto G. (.

*Update Feb 2023; had a plan in place for a new care coordinator promised to me by mid January, suddenly without warning sent a letter discharging me. Their excuse was that it’s too psychologically distressing for me to attend. It wasn’t for the two years prior to changes in April 2021. My last two appointments towards the end of 2022 were unacceptable from a trauma standpoint. Argued with untill I was left feeling totally helpless, walked out on when asking valid question and now been listed as “abusive” because I shouted once they left the room. Since April 2021 I’ve been promised EMDR, never received it and was subsequently punished for being upset about it and wasn’t allowed to ask any questions. No follow up support even though I’ve begged for it, no care plan that was requested and promised over 12 months ago and told I should now go private.
Been left in a mental health crisis since Thursday with no intervention. I cannot stress how much this service needs investigating, there are people worse off than me and god help them if this is what they have to deal with!! Family and friends called 100’s of times when I was still under their care and 99% of the time we didn’t receive a call back. It’s beyond unacceptable*

Update: Psychiatrist here is egotistic, tells you how your feeling, doesn’t listen and when you address why you’ve complained you get told you’re ungrateful for having to endure stress at the lack of care. You have to act like a good boy and agree with him or they withhold medication. Prescribe medication to help deal with a prescription addiction then leave me cold turkey and blame me for the withdrawal symptoms.
Not every member of staff here is the same, but the psychiatrist should not under any circumstances be allowed to work with traumatised patients. My visit on 17th February 2022 was the last straw for me, I left feeling worse and totally hopeless. They cover each other’s backs when you point out any neglect on their side of the care plan and they happily blame it on your symptoms. Very conflicting advice, told them I feel I am unable to keep myself safe and begged for a care plan review. All that I got from that meeting was a very egotistical man telling me that I should be grateful for the lack of support I’ve endured. He made snide remarks, used my symptoms to attempt to gaslight me into getting annoyed so he could refuse treatment. This situation worsened my condition for weeks following. Help? Very questionable help that is.
Beyond disappointed with my treatment here from April last year, I made some progress before this but I wouldn’t advise anyone with severe trauma to entrust your life with these people, if you can I absolutely urge you to go private. Paul has also made empty promises for best part of a year, no contingency plan whilst on leave and doesn’t action your requests. Seemingly nice man but after 12 months of nothing but declining mental state the ‘help’ he’s given me is questionable. A lot of things they tell you make no sense! Hopefully an investigation will prevent any further neglect.

Toby N.

Psychiatrist here is arrogant, dishonest and incompetent, when a formal complaint is made they all cover each other’s backs. Make agreements they have no intention of following through on and in my case lied in the presence of a psychiatric care Coordinator. They are not straight forward or transparent and are completely uninterested in the patient having any agency in their own healthcare even if they are deemed to have capacity. If what you want is talk therapy it’s not available and if you don’t agree to go away and dutifully take anti depressants you are suddenly deemed by a psychiatrist you’ve talked to under false pretences for less than an hour, that has done nothing but collect 45 year old history that she is told repeatedly is of no relevance, an ongoing suicide risk on your permanent gp records despite being told by the CPN you have spent many hours with over several months that you are not. To call them a team is a joke. Steer clear.
Horrendous experience

Nathaniel W.

Pretty much the same, pathetic excuses for human being and no where near what would be considered professional, as an update I was referred back to these morons after they referred me for adhd and autism assessment, apparently I have both, been left for 2 years since they referred me, and when docs referred be back for what I assumed was the next step, which would be some sort of support or help with understanding what my best options are, been told there's a 2 year wait for assessment, what!!!! I thought I was past the assessment stage, useless arrogant obnoxious ppl and completely useless as a system for helping ppl who need it, they are actually asking me to get help from charities, what's the point of them then, after the treatment I've recieved from nhs has actually made my situation worse as I now longer trust any of these morons, how can they actually think they are doing good

Graham A.

If I could give a lower score I would..Absolute disgrace when it comes to care and well being of patients. They even ignore GP letters and phone calls. Utter disgrace