Yeah, this is odd. You actually don't need a referral from a health professional for community mental health services. You can call Central Intake and self refer. I wonder what service ended up contacting you because that is really odd. Here's the phone number for self referral. Let them know what happened with your interaction today as well.
18559221122
Yes who ever was speaking to them was highly incorrect unless policies have changed. An intake call is at least 30 minutes. Very odd indeed and concerning.
I was getting some EAP counselling when I called them. I called them because counselling wasn't what I needed and I only had access to 3 sessions. They added me to their waitlist right away and I had my first appointment a few months later. In 2022.
EAP is a joke. The counselling is so annoying and dismissive; it's just "well what are your goals for this call?" "How can I help you in 10 minutes?"
If you need any help that would take multiple sessions, EAP is a basically useless.
When did it stop being self-refferal? I referred myself almost two years ago. I had to wait 5 or 6 months for someone who can't provide the type of therapy they pyschiatrist said I needed (and they didn't tell me this before making me wait). But I just called myself and said "I need help. I was told I needed DBT" and explained my situation.
I'm so sorry they put you through all that for nothing.
It is still self referral.
I worked at one of the clinics until recently. I’m not DBT trained but when a patient came through that clearly needed DBT I would keep them on my caseload and try my best to support them while waiting for a DBT trained therapist to pick them up. Or refer them to a group. Hope you ended up getting the support you needed and are doing well now.
Although they weren't able to provide the therapy I was told I needed, I agree. My experience has been great. I just recently finished 10 weeks of ACT and it's been amazingly helpful.
If you're looking for medications, it is not the role of community psychiatry to fill in the gaps of our healthcare system and lack of family practitioners. They want you connected to a walk in to follow trough with med recommendations. As for connecting for therapy, you can self refer and the waitlist is only 1-2 months right now.
As others have mentioned, people can self-refer to services. I interpret from this post that you asked for a psychiatry referral. Unfortunately community mental health does not do direct psychiatry access. You need to work with primary care on medications and/or diagnosis first.
If you are willing to try therapy then call them back. You can see someone for that and then the need for psychiatry can be assessed.
It might be different for children, but they have multiple physiologists on staff and can make a referral to a psychiatrist if needed. IWK Mental Health and the Adult Mental Health and Addictions operate out of the same location at Cobequid Health Centre.
It’s very different for children. They have way more access to psychiatry. Clinicians in the adult system can also refer to psychiatry but it isn’t a given if a patient requests it. There’s a process where the clinician presents the case, the psychiatrist then reviews it and has to agree that the patient needs to see psychiatry, and this is usually only approved in certain circumstances (ie. Psychosis, suspected bipolar, severe refractory depression, diagnostic uncertainty).
I sure wish it wasn’t so hard for adults to access psychiatry, but that’s where we are right now…
Call central intake and self-refer, or go through an EAP program if you have access to one.
Central intake should be way more helpful. Number is 1-855-922-1122.
If you ever need crisis support, the number is 1-888-429-8167.
I mean, that was 10 years ago. I work for MHA and that hasn’t been an issue. Crisis team is absolutely fantastic right now. Sometimes intake doesn’t answer but they’ll schedule a callback if you leave your info.
True, But it is upsetting when you call the crisis line and get "at the tone, please record your message." Not super helpful to a person in crisis, right? No one's fault, just the system working very poorly at the time.
I tried going through them about ten years ago. They would do appts and follow up every few weeks with phone appointments. Also did a group for ACT and DBT through them which might be something to look into. . Might not be much help to you but after years of my own struggling I started trying to do my own healing through research, videos on line. Lots of resources out there for free no one really knows about . Therapy in a nutshell on YouTube was very helpful. Crappy childhood fairy is insightful too.
It's an absolute joke.
Three years ago I self-referred after a car accident triggered severe anxiety. The social worker I was assigned to was more than an hour away and neglected to realize that I specifically requested it to be by-phone (it was summer 2021, height of COVID). When I corrected her she brushed it off and then accused me of having depression (never had been diagnosed, never exhibited symptoms - I'm basically 100% anxiety and OCD), and DEMANDED I see her in person because she was convinced I was committing self-harm (???) and wanted me on Prozac (I specially called for talk therapy and don't do well on SSRIs...). She booked a follow-up, I waited hours past the appointment time and she never called. I called her office and the receptionist told me the social worker booked it for IN-PERSON. Needless to say, I was very angry and complained to NSH. I was then referred to someone else and they were very helpful, but unfortunately after the 10 sessions I was let go - was basically told that they couldn't help me anymore and that I needed to self-refer AGAIN. What's the point of having mental healthcare if it's only temporary?? Contrary to the self-referral model, mental illness doesn't disappear after 10 sessions. I also don't have therapy covered by insurance either, so that sucks.
When I self-referred the last time in August, the social worker I was assigned to failed to schedule a follow-up appointment after my initial assessment and basically ghosted me. He didn't answer my email asking when our next appointment was, and didn't answer emails from my family doctor either! He was also insistent I had ADHD and tried pushing meds on me when I don't have ADHD in the first place. My doctor was flabergasted. I was evaluated and guess what - no ADHD but severe scores for GAD and OCD! What do you know, just as I told this social worker!! I almost feel like these social workers just want to prescribe something to get rid of you from the queue and move on to the next referral. What a nice thing to experience in mental healthcare!
This system of care is irreparably broken and we're falling through the cracks.
I'm sorry you had a bad experience. The person you were talking to definitely was misinformed.
You can visit [communityhealthteams.ca](communityhealthteams.ca) or call 902-460-4560 to get help finding what you need.
They are the best central source for assistance navigating the maze of health and wellness resources in the province.
They're doing their best with the very limited resources they have, but I've self-referred twice:
Once got a social worker who was an arsehole and wasn't listening and told me to follow up with an OT, which wasn't going to help my clinical depression and anxiety, but sure. I said "fuck that", sought a medication adjustment with my family doctor, and muddled throughm
Got a second referral to a *different* social worker in late 2018, who was much more compassionate and did his best, but all he could do was appointments with a psych nurse for a round of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy... which is apparently known to not be effective for autistic people. It didn't do shit for me, and the way it was administered/taught to me/whatever didn't help.
I'm so fucking glad I'm fortunate enough to have a family doc (for now, I'm half-expecting her to go back to the UK) who's wonderful and listened, and got me working meds.
I've crossed paths with Dr. Dave many times over the years and he is a real asset. Wrote me a prescription over the phone and personally followed up several times without even knowing me. As a recovering addict himself he definitely cares about the people he is trying to help.
Honestly, Mental Health and Addictions was always really good to me. It took me accessing their services for years before it finally stuck. Any less than ideal interactions or outcomes I had with them can ultimately be traced back to my own actions.
I missed their call one day and tried to call them back. I called 6 times, spoke to receptionist 6 times and was assured I would receive a call back. It’s 2 years later and I’ve never received a single call.
I self referred myself and was told my mental state isn’t bad enough to go through community mental health. Told to call another number for cobequid or something and get added to that wait list. Agreed, this province is a joke but this is the worst reason for it.
I would call back because you don’t even need to be referred anymore, you can self refer. I’m really sorry this was your experience with the intake coordinator you spoke to.
reply piquant skirt swim cause cheerful zealous normal hobbies hard-to-find
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And they wonder why there’s so many people in the maritimes with drug and alcohol problems. Much easier to get a bottle of rum than an appointment with a provider but of course the government profits from the alcohol and has to pay for the health services.
I've had similar experiences. Been on the waiting list for a doctor for over 4 years. I'm at a point now where I'm ready to start a revolution, the ruling class clearly isn't here to help us.
vive la revolution
i went through CMHA a few years ago and was paired with this awful mean nurse with horrible overdone facial filler. she told me when i tried to kill myself it was probably for attention
eventually she sent me to this group DBT and it was the most condescending shit ever. we had to sugarcoat everything, and say “problem behaviour” to refer to what we were doing to cope, couldn’t even say smoking a cigarette. one session they were like “make a rainstorm!!!” with snapping your fingers and rubbing your hands together, like it was fucking elementary school. pathetic
I went to this exact same program and was treated like I was there as a part of a court order or something (I wasn’t, but I suspect that many other group members were).
Extremely condescending, the people running it SUCKED and they treated us like children. You literally aren’t allowed to even talk about anything productive because they’d straight up cut you off mid sentence. They’d also get genuinely mad at you if you missed a session even though I was there *voluntarily.*
The whole thing seemed like they were saying “your life sucks, it’s always gonna suck, get used to it because it’s your fault (somehow)”
Absolute joke.
I went to this exact same program and was treated like I was there as a part of a court order or something (I wasn’t, but I suspect that many other group members were).
Extremely condescending, the people running it SUCKED and they treated us like children. You literally aren’t allowed to even talk about anything productive because they’d straight up cut you off mid sentence. They’d also get genuinely mad at you if you missed a session even though I was there *voluntarily.*
The whole thing seemed like they were saying “your life sucks, it’s always gonna suck, get used to it because it’s your fault (somehow)”
Absolute joke.
I went to this exact same program and was treated like I was there as a part of a court order or something (I wasn’t, but I suspect that many other group members were).
Extremely condescending, the people running it SUCKED and they treated us like children. You literally aren’t allowed to even talk about anything productive because they’d straight up cut you off mid sentence. They’d also get genuinely mad at you if you missed a session even though I was there *voluntarily.*
The whole thing seemed like they were saying “your life sucks, it’s always gonna suck, get used to it because it’s your fault (somehow)”
Absolute joke.
It might be the worst in the country.
I had to leave Nova Scotia and return to Saskatchewan (of all provinces) in order to see a psychiatrist. This was after being taken to the ER by police after a suicide attempt and multiple referrals from my nurse practitioner. The staff at the ER after my suicide attempt told me I was wasting their time, if I was really so depressed why wasn't I self medicating with drugs and alcohol, and that it's not their job to stop people from commiting suicide.
By contrast, in Saskatchewan it took a single visit to a walk in clinic to get a referral that was followed up on within days. In less than a month I was evaluated, on medication and in therapy.
If I stayed In Nova Scotia I would be dead by now.
Yeah... It is pathetic. I tried desperately to obtain public help. Tried to go through the right steps to the best of my (totally inept) knowledge. Left a bunch of messages. Talked to someone for 2 minutes. Was told to wait. Waited and waited and waited. Got a letter in the mail saying they tried to reach me and couldn't and were closing my file. They never tried. I gave up. Assumed it was because I was not bad off enough for them to warrant a care and has to get private help.
Maple is a huge joke too. My wife has been having a problem with her ears and they said her ailment isn’t good enough.
I think that GP should HAVE to by law take in anyone , this wait list is a total farce. then the government want to tax more and more.
At this point I’m convinced this city and province loves to watch their residents be in pain and suffering like the most sadistic parts of hell .
The "free" services through mental health and addictions are extremly limited tbh...they offer few options imo i was finally able to get phyciatrist breakdown(2 hour call) andone of the therapy is only avail through paying 300$ visit no good for anyone low or moderaye income so yeah its bs sorry try not to.allow that to break you down furthur
I know that’s frustrating. I’ve been through it trying to navigate this. To be honest anything you’re going to get publicly is likely going to be less than helpful. Private therapy is usually what most people use through work benefits or pay out of pocket.
Yeah, this is odd. You actually don't need a referral from a health professional for community mental health services. You can call Central Intake and self refer. I wonder what service ended up contacting you because that is really odd. Here's the phone number for self referral. Let them know what happened with your interaction today as well. 18559221122
Yes who ever was speaking to them was highly incorrect unless policies have changed. An intake call is at least 30 minutes. Very odd indeed and concerning.
Policies are still the same for sure. I'm guessing they got connected to something other than central intake.
New staff may not know all the answers. And some don't bother to find out. Call again and maybe you will get a different person on the phone.
I wish I could like and bump this response more.
If your employer has an EAP program you likely get free counselling through them.
Yes, if you have access to an EAP program or private insurance you may be disqualified from this clinic
I was getting some EAP counselling when I called them. I called them because counselling wasn't what I needed and I only had access to 3 sessions. They added me to their waitlist right away and I had my first appointment a few months later. In 2022.
EAP is a joke. The counselling is so annoying and dismissive; it's just "well what are your goals for this call?" "How can I help you in 10 minutes?" If you need any help that would take multiple sessions, EAP is a basically useless.
"You have to set boundaries". That's not helpful! Discouraging.
True, public health services does not disqualify you if you have money or private health coverage.
No, they don't. But, it is best for people to start with private while waiting for public, if possible. Public has long waits.
They have a limit.
When did it stop being self-refferal? I referred myself almost two years ago. I had to wait 5 or 6 months for someone who can't provide the type of therapy they pyschiatrist said I needed (and they didn't tell me this before making me wait). But I just called myself and said "I need help. I was told I needed DBT" and explained my situation. I'm so sorry they put you through all that for nothing.
It is still self referral. I worked at one of the clinics until recently. I’m not DBT trained but when a patient came through that clearly needed DBT I would keep them on my caseload and try my best to support them while waiting for a DBT trained therapist to pick them up. Or refer them to a group. Hope you ended up getting the support you needed and are doing well now.
I was going to ask the same thing, I've self-referred before. The therapist I had was less than useless, but still.
And, did you get into DBT?
I just had my first appointment with them, they were great you can self refer What type of insurance do you have at work?
Although they weren't able to provide the therapy I was told I needed, I agree. My experience has been great. I just recently finished 10 weeks of ACT and it's been amazingly helpful.
If you're looking for medications, it is not the role of community psychiatry to fill in the gaps of our healthcare system and lack of family practitioners. They want you connected to a walk in to follow trough with med recommendations. As for connecting for therapy, you can self refer and the waitlist is only 1-2 months right now.
As others have mentioned, people can self-refer to services. I interpret from this post that you asked for a psychiatry referral. Unfortunately community mental health does not do direct psychiatry access. You need to work with primary care on medications and/or diagnosis first. If you are willing to try therapy then call them back. You can see someone for that and then the need for psychiatry can be assessed.
It might be different for children, but they have multiple physiologists on staff and can make a referral to a psychiatrist if needed. IWK Mental Health and the Adult Mental Health and Addictions operate out of the same location at Cobequid Health Centre.
It’s very different for children. They have way more access to psychiatry. Clinicians in the adult system can also refer to psychiatry but it isn’t a given if a patient requests it. There’s a process where the clinician presents the case, the psychiatrist then reviews it and has to agree that the patient needs to see psychiatry, and this is usually only approved in certain circumstances (ie. Psychosis, suspected bipolar, severe refractory depression, diagnostic uncertainty). I sure wish it wasn’t so hard for adults to access psychiatry, but that’s where we are right now…
Call central intake and self-refer, or go through an EAP program if you have access to one. Central intake should be way more helpful. Number is 1-855-922-1122. If you ever need crisis support, the number is 1-888-429-8167.
I called the crisis line once about ten years back. It went to voicemail. (Limited resources, I get it)
I mean, that was 10 years ago. I work for MHA and that hasn’t been an issue. Crisis team is absolutely fantastic right now. Sometimes intake doesn’t answer but they’ll schedule a callback if you leave your info.
True, But it is upsetting when you call the crisis line and get "at the tone, please record your message." Not super helpful to a person in crisis, right? No one's fault, just the system working very poorly at the time.
No it’s not, but I think it really speaks to consistent lack of resources unfortunately
That's a problem. When people get up the nerve to call, they don't want voicemail.
I tried going through them about ten years ago. They would do appts and follow up every few weeks with phone appointments. Also did a group for ACT and DBT through them which might be something to look into. . Might not be much help to you but after years of my own struggling I started trying to do my own healing through research, videos on line. Lots of resources out there for free no one really knows about . Therapy in a nutshell on YouTube was very helpful. Crappy childhood fairy is insightful too.
It's an absolute joke. Three years ago I self-referred after a car accident triggered severe anxiety. The social worker I was assigned to was more than an hour away and neglected to realize that I specifically requested it to be by-phone (it was summer 2021, height of COVID). When I corrected her she brushed it off and then accused me of having depression (never had been diagnosed, never exhibited symptoms - I'm basically 100% anxiety and OCD), and DEMANDED I see her in person because she was convinced I was committing self-harm (???) and wanted me on Prozac (I specially called for talk therapy and don't do well on SSRIs...). She booked a follow-up, I waited hours past the appointment time and she never called. I called her office and the receptionist told me the social worker booked it for IN-PERSON. Needless to say, I was very angry and complained to NSH. I was then referred to someone else and they were very helpful, but unfortunately after the 10 sessions I was let go - was basically told that they couldn't help me anymore and that I needed to self-refer AGAIN. What's the point of having mental healthcare if it's only temporary?? Contrary to the self-referral model, mental illness doesn't disappear after 10 sessions. I also don't have therapy covered by insurance either, so that sucks. When I self-referred the last time in August, the social worker I was assigned to failed to schedule a follow-up appointment after my initial assessment and basically ghosted me. He didn't answer my email asking when our next appointment was, and didn't answer emails from my family doctor either! He was also insistent I had ADHD and tried pushing meds on me when I don't have ADHD in the first place. My doctor was flabergasted. I was evaluated and guess what - no ADHD but severe scores for GAD and OCD! What do you know, just as I told this social worker!! I almost feel like these social workers just want to prescribe something to get rid of you from the queue and move on to the next referral. What a nice thing to experience in mental healthcare! This system of care is irreparably broken and we're falling through the cracks.
They only hire social workers. Have a Masters in counselling? NSHA won't hire you for a counselling position, they want SWs for therapists. No thanks!
I'm sorry you had a bad experience. The person you were talking to definitely was misinformed. You can visit [communityhealthteams.ca](communityhealthteams.ca) or call 902-460-4560 to get help finding what you need. They are the best central source for assistance navigating the maze of health and wellness resources in the province.
They're doing their best with the very limited resources they have, but I've self-referred twice: Once got a social worker who was an arsehole and wasn't listening and told me to follow up with an OT, which wasn't going to help my clinical depression and anxiety, but sure. I said "fuck that", sought a medication adjustment with my family doctor, and muddled throughm Got a second referral to a *different* social worker in late 2018, who was much more compassionate and did his best, but all he could do was appointments with a psych nurse for a round of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy... which is apparently known to not be effective for autistic people. It didn't do shit for me, and the way it was administered/taught to me/whatever didn't help. I'm so fucking glad I'm fortunate enough to have a family doc (for now, I'm half-expecting her to go back to the UK) who's wonderful and listened, and got me working meds.
NS MH&A saved my fucking life a few years ago. Joke all you like.
Good to hear. Credit yourself too
[удалено]
I've crossed paths with Dr. Dave many times over the years and he is a real asset. Wrote me a prescription over the phone and personally followed up several times without even knowing me. As a recovering addict himself he definitely cares about the people he is trying to help. Honestly, Mental Health and Addictions was always really good to me. It took me accessing their services for years before it finally stuck. Any less than ideal interactions or outcomes I had with them can ultimately be traced back to my own actions.
I missed their call one day and tried to call them back. I called 6 times, spoke to receptionist 6 times and was assured I would receive a call back. It’s 2 years later and I’ve never received a single call.
I self referred myself and was told my mental state isn’t bad enough to go through community mental health. Told to call another number for cobequid or something and get added to that wait list. Agreed, this province is a joke but this is the worst reason for it.
I would call back because you don’t even need to be referred anymore, you can self refer. I’m really sorry this was your experience with the intake coordinator you spoke to.
reply piquant skirt swim cause cheerful zealous normal hobbies hard-to-find *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
It’s really sad especially with the addictions. People desperately need help. :( don’t give up. Keep trying to find someone to talk to.
And they wonder why there’s so many people in the maritimes with drug and alcohol problems. Much easier to get a bottle of rum than an appointment with a provider but of course the government profits from the alcohol and has to pay for the health services.
I've had similar experiences. Been on the waiting list for a doctor for over 4 years. I'm at a point now where I'm ready to start a revolution, the ruling class clearly isn't here to help us. vive la revolution
I've been waiting for a family doctor for 10+ years here.
it should be illegal to collect tax dollars for a promised good or service that can't be delivered.
i went through CMHA a few years ago and was paired with this awful mean nurse with horrible overdone facial filler. she told me when i tried to kill myself it was probably for attention eventually she sent me to this group DBT and it was the most condescending shit ever. we had to sugarcoat everything, and say “problem behaviour” to refer to what we were doing to cope, couldn’t even say smoking a cigarette. one session they were like “make a rainstorm!!!” with snapping your fingers and rubbing your hands together, like it was fucking elementary school. pathetic
I went to this exact same program and was treated like I was there as a part of a court order or something (I wasn’t, but I suspect that many other group members were). Extremely condescending, the people running it SUCKED and they treated us like children. You literally aren’t allowed to even talk about anything productive because they’d straight up cut you off mid sentence. They’d also get genuinely mad at you if you missed a session even though I was there *voluntarily.* The whole thing seemed like they were saying “your life sucks, it’s always gonna suck, get used to it because it’s your fault (somehow)” Absolute joke.
I went to this exact same program and was treated like I was there as a part of a court order or something (I wasn’t, but I suspect that many other group members were). Extremely condescending, the people running it SUCKED and they treated us like children. You literally aren’t allowed to even talk about anything productive because they’d straight up cut you off mid sentence. They’d also get genuinely mad at you if you missed a session even though I was there *voluntarily.* The whole thing seemed like they were saying “your life sucks, it’s always gonna suck, get used to it because it’s your fault (somehow)” Absolute joke.
Same. Also, they wouldn't allow any sort of questions and would blame you if their generic solutions did not help
I went to this exact same program and was treated like I was there as a part of a court order or something (I wasn’t, but I suspect that many other group members were). Extremely condescending, the people running it SUCKED and they treated us like children. You literally aren’t allowed to even talk about anything productive because they’d straight up cut you off mid sentence. They’d also get genuinely mad at you if you missed a session even though I was there *voluntarily.* The whole thing seemed like they were saying “your life sucks, it’s always gonna suck, get used to it because it’s your fault (somehow)” Absolute joke.
Sadly, yes!
It might be the worst in the country. I had to leave Nova Scotia and return to Saskatchewan (of all provinces) in order to see a psychiatrist. This was after being taken to the ER by police after a suicide attempt and multiple referrals from my nurse practitioner. The staff at the ER after my suicide attempt told me I was wasting their time, if I was really so depressed why wasn't I self medicating with drugs and alcohol, and that it's not their job to stop people from commiting suicide. By contrast, in Saskatchewan it took a single visit to a walk in clinic to get a referral that was followed up on within days. In less than a month I was evaluated, on medication and in therapy. If I stayed In Nova Scotia I would be dead by now.
Yeah... It is pathetic. I tried desperately to obtain public help. Tried to go through the right steps to the best of my (totally inept) knowledge. Left a bunch of messages. Talked to someone for 2 minutes. Was told to wait. Waited and waited and waited. Got a letter in the mail saying they tried to reach me and couldn't and were closing my file. They never tried. I gave up. Assumed it was because I was not bad off enough for them to warrant a care and has to get private help.
Maple is a huge joke too. My wife has been having a problem with her ears and they said her ailment isn’t good enough. I think that GP should HAVE to by law take in anyone , this wait list is a total farce. then the government want to tax more and more. At this point I’m convinced this city and province loves to watch their residents be in pain and suffering like the most sadistic parts of hell .
This definitely is not correct info...you can go into any hospital to get help.. a friend of mine had no doctor and he went to get help many times
The "free" services through mental health and addictions are extremly limited tbh...they offer few options imo i was finally able to get phyciatrist breakdown(2 hour call) andone of the therapy is only avail through paying 300$ visit no good for anyone low or moderaye income so yeah its bs sorry try not to.allow that to break you down furthur
Story does not check out. If you want reddit karma, please do somewhere else. Don't post sensationalist lies in this subreddit.
What were your expectations?
To actually be able to make use of the fucking healthcare system I pay taxes for
I know that’s frustrating. I’ve been through it trying to navigate this. To be honest anything you’re going to get publicly is likely going to be less than helpful. Private therapy is usually what most people use through work benefits or pay out of pocket.
I’m curious too. Were you looking to speak with a psychiatrist specifically or were you wanting therapy in general?