CW: Mention of self-harm and suicidal thoughts

I live in the UK and I have been having ongoing issues with my local mental health team and I wanted to ask if anyone had any advice/ any personal experience with this.

Firstly, the mental health team are refusing to formally diagnose me with BPD. Multiple GPs and mental health nurses have stated that they are very sure that I have BPD, and my current Senior Practitioner said that she couldn’t think of anything else that it could be. Their reasoning for not pushing through for a formal diagnosis, is that I am too young (I am 20 and have had symptoms for nearly 8 years now). I have asked to speak directly to a psychiatrist to discuss a diagnosis and a possible change to the medications that I am taking. My GP has sent a letter to them asking for this to happen, as they do not feel comfortable with changing my medication and they would like to seek some expert advice. The mental health team replied saying that they were not considering a formal diagnosis at this time and ignored the request for a psychiatrists input regarding my medication.

Secondly, I spoke to one of the GPs in January who referred me for DBT, he explained that it is preferable to access DBT rather than adding in more medication. After waiting and attempting to get an update on what was happening due to the pandemic, I was told that someone would be in touch. A few more months later, my case worker explained that because I was actively self-harming and had suicidal thoughts, they could not provide DBT, and so it had basically been cancelled without discussing it with me first. They have said that I need to stop self-harming and having suicidal thoughts before DBT can begin, but won’t provide much assistance in the meantime. This is particularly frustrating as through my own research I have found that the first things that are covered in DBT seem to be how to cope with self-harm and suicidal thoughts.

Thirdly, my case worker claims to understand how BPD is affecting my life but she is only discussing emotional sensitivity, and advising me to work through the workbook that she has provided. I have told her that I am getting worse and worse and that I am really struggling to cope. She said that I should work on the techniques in the workbook when I was feeling calm and just use the techniques that I am already familiar with in the mean time, but those techniques aren’t helping me get better and I just seem to be getting worse.

Finally, I feel like I am not being taken seriously. The crisis team usually tell me to call back during working hours to speak to my case worker. Liaison Psychiatry at the hospital usually just fill in a report and send that and a message to my case worker, asking them to speed up any referrals and to contact me about the support that I am requesting. This doesn’t really help me make much progress. My boyfriend has been trying to look after me for a long time now and he is struggling to do so, he called them a while ago and begged for some support for me, and I still seem to be receiving the minimum support that they can offer. 

I just feel like i’m hitting a brick wall at every turn and I wanted to know if anyone had any advice or tips on what I can do. I’ve looked at going private but I simply can’t afford it.