There is so much that needs improvement, but we need to start with better accessibility to mental health support in Wales

There’s no shortage of discussion around mental health and yet the same conclusion persists – we need to improve the way people in Wales have access support.

Eleri Evans knows first-hand what it’s like to seek support for mental health from a young age. The 21-year-old developed symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) as a young girl and describes living with the condition as an ‘ongoing struggle that never really goes away’.

Here Eleri, a university student from Aberdare, shares what seeking mental health support throughout her teens and early adulthood has been like for her – and why she believes the new Welsh Government’s focus must be on improving accessibility to mental health services before anything else.

I have OCD, and this comes with a lot of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) symptoms too, and makes everyday a struggle for me.

Every task I do, including things most people do without thinking, comes with a high level of anxiety. This has caused me to develop depression and agoraphobia in the past and, at my worst point, I was unable to leave my house for three months.

OCD is an ongoing struggle and something that never really goes away. Having experienced it my whole life, I’ve learned to manage it and mask my struggle quite a lot, but it doesn’t mean it’s not there.

1 in 5 young people struggle with their mental health and over 80% of women have said that when they’ve reached out for professional support regarding their health they’ve felt ‘dismissed’. I’ve spoken with six counsellors throughout my life and three of them were very dismissive and, in some cases, made me feel worse.

Mental health is a growing and universal issue that is so often overlooked. There’s no real, sustainable mental health care system within the UK, and the key issue regarding the growing mental health crisis is the lack of accessible support.

The counsellors I’ve spoken to are either unable to provide proper, helpful support or are only funded to provide a limited number of sessions. Mental health is not a temporary issue for a lot of people, including myself, and not something that can be resolved in five sessions.

My experience with mental health support has been sporadic and, in some cases, very unhelpful. I’ve only really had access to temporary, limited session counselling despite having a long term mental health condition. I spend most of my time just repeating myself because I get tossed from counsellor to counsellor every few weeks, and that isn’t including the months in between where I can’t access one at all.

Dismissed

I was referred to CAMHS when I was 17 and the counsellor wouldn’t allow me to answer questions with anything more than a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ so they could tick the box on the sheet but had no interest in my actual experiences. At the time, I felt so dismissed and like nobody cared what I was going through.

I believe mental health support as a whole needs to be drastically improved and, in particular, I think women are overlooked a lot in mental health care – I can say this has certainly been my experience. I didn’t realise I had OCD until I was 16 and, when I was 12 years old, my mother took me to a doctor for my anxious and distressed behaviour, and the doctor claimed I was just being a ‘teenage girl’ and prescribed me hormone regulators.

I also think that LGBTQ+ people are very under supported. LGBTQ+ people are more likely to struggle with mental health, often due to the societal standards and ridicule they face, but there is little support for this and almost no specified training for counsellors to help with this either.

But, while there is so much that needs improvement, I believe this needs to start with better accessibility. Too many people have to wait months to access therapy through the NHS, if they qualify for referral at all. When they do they are often dismissed or overlooked, or offered medication and told there’s nothing that can be done for them.

This was my experience when I was just 16 years old after waiting nine months to even see a counsellor.

Suffer

Most people cannot afford to access private mental health care and a lot, like myself, are forced to suffer through it with little to no help. Many changes need to be made but overall the system will continue to be ineffective until people can access the support they need, when they need it.

I understand that change won’t always come overnight but I would like to see the foundations of a sustainable, accessible mental health care system being built for the people of Wales during the next Senedd term.

This should be visible change with a clear rise in the number of people able to access counselling and other services when they need them – not just for a single session – and notable improvement in the training and support available for mental health professionals too.

Better access

People often feel like their voice doesn’t matter so they don’t try, but the only way to make real progress is to never stop shouting for what you need.

The representatives of the Senedd are supposed to represent what the people of Wales need and want – and what we increasingly need in Wales is better access to mental health support services on the days that it matters most, not weeks or months down the line.

The new Welsh Government needs to listen to the voices of people with experience of trying to get support for their mental health and act to build something that better meets our needs.