I’m so glad I’m seeing my psychiatrist today. My head’s a mess and the depression is getting worse again.
I forgot to get a new referral for the psych from a GP, though. They’ll probably let me see him anyway, duty of care and all.
But seriously, who the hell thought up the referral system here? I know I need to see a psychiatrist; I just got out of mental hospital, where I was involuntarily admitted under the “Mental Health Act” for being suicidal. Now, they want me to go visit a doctor for however much that costs these days so I can tell him I’m depressed and I need a psychiatrist so he can tell me I need to see a psychiatrist. Bureaucratic bullshit, much?
Why can’t the psychiatrist just say I need to keep seeing him? Why do I have to go back to someone with comparatively little experience with mental illness to make that profound revelation?
Perhaps the person who designed this system was a GP with a severe case of loneliness. Maybe the designer had nothing to do with the system whatsoever.
We may never know the real answer. We can only hope that whoever it was, he or she is now dead, a victim of their own bureaucratic system.
1 comment
In Soviet Russia, you need referral from psychiatrist to see doctor.