Waitemata Community Mental Health Centre

A P P A L L I N G. Do not seek services here!! I was adamant on my issues and what help I needed, and was refused it. My true needs were carelessly overlooked and instead I was prescribed medication I did not feel was fit and held a very resistant stance on. I have ADD. My symptoms are not a result of depression....depression is a result of my ADD, and in turn, my inability to function as an adult. It has severely impacted my life. Every time I had an appointment I broke down and cried about this very real issue and my struggles with it, but it was brushed aside and never addressed. I discharged myself from this psychiatrist as my true needs were not being met. In the past with prior help from specialists, I was given the appropriate medication which significantly helped me and subsequently improved my quality of life. At this place....denied. Again and again despite my persistence. The services here made me feel at an absolute loss. Despite my psychiatrist's carelessness, the nurse who works there, Greer, was very kind and genuinely caring, and I appreciate her efforts to retrieve the help I needed, although it was to no avail. If you are in need of help, you will not find it here. Please do yourself a favour and seek it elsewhere!

I am so greatful to have the support from the team here at CMH. Even when I have been unable, or have at times, intentionally avoided responding to their calls, they persist in order to ensure that I am safe, and to offer their services for my healing.The staff have been incredibly patient and empathetic toward me, as well as highly professional. After having had some confusing and scarey experiences in the mental health system, this organization have given me a completely refreshing and positive experience, restoring my faith in community mental health, allowing me to feel safe with their guidance, and trust in the process.Although I have avoided this for quite some time, in fear of being treated like a number, and being prescribed a bunch of bad drugs, it has turned out that the crew have been very committed with finding me a variety of services and techniques that cater to my specific needs and wants.I am so relieved and proud of myself for facung my fear of reaching out and accepting support in a system that I once mistrusted strongly. Now I am finally open to receive support and am getting it in an authentic and compassionate, professional way.If you are struggling, I highly recommend giving this a go.Thank you all so much!

Terrible service from Lee My key worker. Even when I had severe depression only phone once.

I have been with north shore adult mental health for 3 years and experience has varied with different doctors. I really like my doctor now, who is careful with medications. On the other hand a female doctor whom I had for a short period of time were constantly prescribing medications for everything and probably worsened my condition. She was prescribing sedative medications when I was already feeling sleepy.As for the nurse, she is hard to get in touch with so I chose not to call often. I try to accumulate things to say then say it all at once. The cultural support worker is also very busy so was frustrated with that for a while. But in general the nurse and support worker are very helpful in getting benefit and support with student allowance when studying part time (there is an exception to people with mental health condition).As my condition goes, a 24 hour support was needed and the crisis/ after hours team is not very helpful for that, they just offer a listening ear and try to suggest things like go for a walk, avoid stress etc. I don't know if those things really helped.

Receptionist very rude and hangs up.Referrals slow.Helensville mental health the pitts!!!

Disgusted! 2 and a half years worth of so-called care for my little brother, and there has been no progress made what so ever. If anything they have made him more anxious and confused. They were suppose to have been working on getting him out of the house and getting him socialised, and apparently a 2 minute drive around the block every 3 weeks about covers that! No behavioural therapy or counselling has been offered when asked, rather opting to up his dosage of his already high dosge of medication! My mother has complained several times and the staff has been extremely unhelpful, to the point of belittling my mother and trying to paint a picture of it being all in her head!!! Extremely disapointing Waitemata mental health. You contribute to an already very serious issue here in Nz, little to no support of people suffering with mental illness, and the families of those suffering. Well done!

Disgusting so called mental health support for my son .More like the opposite !I have put in more complaints about that place and so called care .And even the manager there has ignored requests for my son to have a transfer doctor and nurse .Of which I have copy's of that my son has signed .They scare my son into agreeing to there demands. My son is scared of not agreeing with them .They has installed more confusion and fear into him .I have decided not to be a part of there meetings because it made me sick the lack of respect that they have for me in front of my son .Jacobs doctor said to my face in front of my son that They don't care about me " ...And the rest ...They lied to my son about taking him to get free burgers with general care .General care have never given him one ... All they ever request to do is up his meds .My son is always down for a few days after there so called support meetings .They are nothing but a big annoying waste of tax payers money.I am editing this today 31 / 10 / 18 .These facts prior to this were noted 7 months ago .Sam Meale is continuing to mix up my son's meds .I talked to her on the phone yesterday and explained that my son has three pills daily .And she still has prescribed only two pills daily .. And I explained this to the life pharmacy in Birkenead she said that she would contact Sam Meale about the meds that it is supposed to be 3 daily .My son still came home after picking his meds up prescribed as 2 daily .She is always mixing up Jacobs meds .She has been doing this for years .And is continuing to do itI am taking further complaints about her and this doctor to other places !I will get advice from Auckland Council etc !Does she even know what she is doing .! .. ?...My daughter Cecelia David Hay has also put in complaint reviews about this disgrace for a nurse !"

I think within this service it's all about who you get. They do have a high turn over of staff (I've been in the service for 3 and a half years and have had 5 case managers and 4 psychiatrists).I think within the service you also have to advocate for yourself as best as possible and if your case manager and/or psychiatrist isnt helping you request to change your team.My last case worker and psychiatrist were people who just weren't a good fit for me so I requested to change my whole team and now I'm being I have an incredibly good relationship with my case worker and psychiatrist. In terms of who you need to have a good relationship with its definitely first and foremost your case worker as they are the ones you have the most interaction with.I'm sorry to hear of all the negative experiences people have had within the service and I could definitely see that being the case. The service definitely could be better. But I'm just lucky my experience has been a pretty satisfactory one.For case managers Filly (though I'm not sure if she still is in that role) and Taryn are INCREDIBLE and have helped me immensely and always advocated for me in terms of voicing how I was feeling to other services when I wasnt strong enough to do so.I saw that someone posted a negative review about the psychiatrist Ingrid, I've found her to be the best psychiatrist I've had so far, soft spoken and asks all the right questions.In terms of groups, I've been in 4 throughout my time and have found them to be helpful both in the social aspect (where I have met some great people) and in their content. Sure, some of the groups I havent found were helpful for me, but when that was the case I still went for the social aspect and learning different skills/gaining knowledge even if so far I havent found information for that particular group helpful.Being a patient within different public services before I kind of knew where my expectations needed to be and they've lived up to that. Being a public service their resources are stretched THIN so for what they are given by the DHB funding wise, I think they are doing the best job they can with what they have been given which is something that I feel should be recognized.

Absolutely shockingly bad service. Go to your GP or private health care provider (counselor or psychologist etc), your mental health is very important and it's worth it.

DO NOT book with Shanshan Ge! She is not a qualified therapist! I told them that I need help from a psychologist which Shanshan told me that qualifications from therapists don’t matter and insisted that I go with her. What a mistake wasting all my sessions on her - most of the time she doesn’t keep track of what we had discussed in previous sessions and contradicts the things she said. She also accused me of all sorts of things and passed those false accusations onto my community social worker. Now I have to reapply for mental health care and a new community social worker because she ruined everything for me.