Saffron Ground - Mental Health Services - Stevenage

Elise L.

Would give lower if I could
Diagnosed with severe and enduring mental illnesses and here is my experience
Day Crisis team workers are very dissmissive and play down my concerns and feelings, makes many assumptions before I even open my mouth to speak, seem to not pay attention to my file at all and seem to miss a lot of basic information about me that I wouldve thought would be looked at while "spending the time to read your file" like my literal diagnoses.
Leaves me feeling even worse than when I go in to see them, which is gross considering they are supposed to be "a positive first point of contact for those in crisis"
Facility and crisis team always never communicates with my GP, fails to update them on medication changes to my LONG TERM MEDICATION every single time, causing me a lot of distress and lots of running around trying to figure out what's going on and who didn't do their job again.
They'll tell me that they will write things down and do it after my appointment (like updating GP on medication changes, or put in referrals) only for them to not do it and for me to only find out ages after only after I chase them relentlessly to check for progress
Called them multiple times to ask about psychiatrist appointments as my medication has been in ongoing review...they for some reason tell me "it's not their job" even though I am under the ACMHT Only for me to call the GP, wait months for an appointment and for them to tell me it is supposed to be their job as ACMHT, and didn't know why they were telling me to access psychiatrist appointments through the GP and they can't do anything for me...
First point of access duty line workers are for some reason, very unnecessarily rude and dismissive every time on the line with them, once even rudely demanded to know "what do you want from us, you're the one who asked us to call you" the moment I picked up the line
The only luck I've had was with my support worker who actually gets things done when she writes them down and helps me chase things up a lot, the doctors, and a few nice competent workers in the crisis team if you're lucky enough to even meet them...which is appalling considering I've been with the crisis team a good amount of times with different workers for every appointment while I am under them, and majority of them were somehow this bad?
If you access the crisis team and feel worse afterwards don't worry because you are not alone and it definitely isn't your issue, they are genuinely very unhelpful and dissmissive a lot

Jon W.

Yes, I have been diagnosed with Severe Treatment-resistant Depression and Generalised Anxiety disorder since Age 18.
My GP Referred me to SG for a new Psychiatric Assessment. What I actually got was - A totally inappropriate and flawed "Assessment", undertaken NOT BY THE ALWAYS EXPERIENCED, WELL TRAINED, AND THROUGHLY PROFESSIONAL PSYCHIATRIST - WHICH I HAVE ALWAYS HAD IN EVERY OTHER COUNTY - FROM LEEDS TO YORK, AND NORFOLK TO BRISTOL I HAVE BEEN GIVEN ASSESSMENTS!

NO, This was done by a Healthcare Assistant - THAT IS - NOT EVEN A NURSE!
Absolutely ridiculous and irrelevant questions and a demonstration of the fact that She knew very little about the workings of the One totally locked down Hospital, and understood as much about Treatment Resistant Depression, as my CAT!
Yes = ZERO!

After an hour of just sheer frustration, and this person trying to "Analyse the reason for me to be on THE VERGE OF A COMPLETE RELAPSE"
Despite both myself and my Advocate insisting she was absolutely WRONG! I just had to get out of the office before I screamed!
I should of course immediately requested my 2nd Opinion - but seeing as how the whole process was designed to help me escape once & for all the WORST CMHT I HAVE EVER HAD THE MISFORTUNE TO BE UNDER - AND THAT'S NOT JUST IN THE UK!

To explain, I have previously been LIED TO BY A PSYCHIATRIST, DUTY WORKERS, AND A SOCIAL WORKER (SEVERAL TIMES!) I THEREFORE HAVE NO INTEREST WHATSOEVER IN BEING ANYTHING TO DO WITH THIS ABYSMAL EXCUSE FOR A CMHT!

Gerry M.

Apart from Dr. Paval who has given me prescriptions/meds to help with my anxiety, I haven't had much luck with this place. You keep getting referred and discharged every left, right snd centre, refer me to other MH doctors to help me move on from the problems I'm facing but I keep getting promises from psychiatrists that are always broken.

Paige M.

I have been hesitant to leave a review of saffron ground since my adhd assessment appointment sept 2022 - because if I’m honest I have been left traumatised by my experience
First of all I want to say that the admin team were always very pleasant and helpful towards me. Secondly my pre assessment went amazingly and the woman I spoke to was so validating and really truly listened to me and made me feel very comfortable and at ease. I thought wow this has been such an amazing experience - almost a breeze, until my adhd assessment came. I was greeted by Dr GOPI in the waiting room who walked with me to his office. At first he was all smiles, I felt at ease until he sat me down and asked me what has brought me in this particular day. I explained that I want to get a diagnoses in order to do better for my children. Straight away Dr GOPI grew a smug look on his face. He disregarded my struggles and explained that I’m no different from any other parent struggling with a new born and a toddler. He took my words and twisted them and this reflected in the report that was sent to me. He asked me if my parents were stupid because of their spending habits, now whilst I would agree this about my parents I felt it was very unprofessional for a QUALIFIED DOCTOR to use this language during an adhd assessment. He shoved a book under my nose with BPD symptoms and insinuated that this could be what I’m struggling with. At this moment I knew exactly what was going on and he didn’t think I had adhd therefore didn’t bother to carry out a proper assessment or follow any criteria to help me with my diagnoses.
Dr Gopi suggested I take parenting classes to improve my parenting skills - not to toot my own horn but I’m a very doting and mindful parent and I’m always doing the best I can to be the best parent I can be due to past childhood trauma.
Dr Gopi then suggested he can put me through for an autism referral and upon asking me some questions asked me if I was into any ‘weird activities or hobbies’ using the word WEIRD when talking about autism I feel is SO inappropriate for a bloody mental health specialist
When I told the doctor my interests and hobbies he had a very patronising look and tone and asked me if I was into sci-fi movies 😂 it’s so so obvious that saffron ground are hiring doctors that don’t have a scooby about neurodiversity.

Now to make matters worse, when I appealed through PALS again the team at PALS were amazing so supportive, told me I had a right to ask for a second opinion. so I went through the complaint procedure, waited 35 working days for a response. To be told Dr Gopi did follow the correct procedures, he was sorry for calling my parents stupid and I don’t need a second opinion and I do not have adhd. Being left with no support to help me with the issues I’d had been facing.

Two years later I have had an assessment with psychiatry UK through right to choose (look this up if you haven’t had any luck at saffron ground either) and I have been told I do in fact have ADHD.
So I just wanted to say to dr Gopi, I got my diagnoses with no thanks to you. And I truly hope that saffron ground take note of the quality of doctors they have working at their clinic because doctors like him are failing the community.

Ildiko N.

Absolutely pathetic service!! No chance to see a doctor only a nurse who will diagnose you!! How can a nurse diagnose people is beyond my mind!!! This is why people commit suicide left right centre!!! NHS mental health is a disgrace!!!!

Andy D.

I asked for help in January 2024. I waited for them to phone me at my allotted time. - no phone call came. I phoned them and asked why no one phoned. The admin stated that there was no appointment listed for me. I pointed out that they had phoned me and made the appointment. Therefore my assessment appointment was rescheduled. It is now April. I have had three appointments cancelled and rescheduled by them. Totally useless.
To be honest, as a supposedly mental health support unit, they are making my mental health worse through their total lack of compassion, communication and empathy.
What makes me laugh is that, within the text messages and letters they send you, they warn you, that if you fail to attend two meetings they will drop you like a stone and discontinue their services. What they don’t explain is, what do you do is they fail to attend four pre-arranged appointments.
A total joke.

Sain S.

Honestly awful. The doctors are great unfortunately the admin staff completely let this service down. I iust got hung up on by admin staff when asked to speak to a manager. They do not pass along messages to doctors so you are better off going to the GP. Ypu would think for service specialising with mental health would be trained sufficiently to speak to people on the phone.

Sheree R.

Never going back again…felt like I was being spoken to like a child and I could tell they were trying to act like they understood and just going along with what I was saying. Was my first appointment I have loads of mental problems but I wanted a diagnosis for my severe mood swings which I’ve had for years even my gp said I’m showing signs of bpd but when attending saffron ground they acted as if I was making it all up in my head and ignored everything I was saying by trying to say I’ll grow out of it…literally said I’m too young to have bpd and that I’ll grow out of it by 25 as my personality’s still changing how does that make sense bpd is something you get in your teenage years and it’s not as if when I turn 25 ill be a complete different person my personality’s already formed but everything I said was brushed under the carpet just made me feel even worse about myself and even more alone. I wouldn’t say I have something if I didn’t think I had it, felt like walking out the appointment complete waste of time.