Sutherland Centre - Stoke-on-Trent

Jon C.

I am currently seeing a psychologist to help me with mental health problems I am trying to overcome.

I have had the same lady for the past two sessions there and she has been absolutely amazing and so very helpful to me.

The whole place is spotless and the receptionist on signing in was very friendly and did make me feel calm.

Just wanted pass on my positive past two experiences at the centre.

Thank you very much for everything you have done to help me so far.

Jon

William B.

Absolutely disgusting individuals who don’t care about any of there patients they rather argue and make you more ill than actually helping. No one who works here cares the head psychiatrist has a god complex and thinks she knows everything and won’t do anything to actually help honestly avoid this place like the plague. No one is on the same page and all are there to have a laugh and a joke these peoples licences need reviewing and the service need a whole shake up they are all to comfortable the only decent people there are the health care assistances

Mark

No doctors for half the week apparently so if you need medication that they have prescribed for years you have to go without because they can't change the name of the medication 5 minute simple job I've rang 42 pharmacy's. Who have told me there's a global shortage of my brand but they can get another but it's impossible for my prescription to be changed. Great help you lot are.

Sally B.

EDIT - Be aware, David Hibbertson performing CBT and DBT sessions, in Psych' team, is NOT REGISTERED, & no OM cert'. See pic/ reply to FOI request.

EDIT - see link to video footage of police removing me as I asked if staff had legal certifications to practice/ if autistic people were safeguarded.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/XeWUHGB8UqSYE2Ms5

This hospital is not safe for nuero-divergent individuals.

Your rights as an autistic person are as follows -

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/meeting-the-needs-of-autistic-adults-in-mental-health-services/

***

If you are a nuero-divergent individual then I strongly advise not to accept 'Ruth' as a therapist. She is not a safe person.

I have had a number of counselors over the years; all of which I have got on very well with, felt completely safe, and have had positive experiences with. One amazing Lead Counsellor from MIND (who I spent 18 sessions with, and additional at later times) determined I was Autistic. She fully understood root causes, and provided different ways of thinking and solutions that I am eternally grateful for. Another fantastic male NHS counselor was again excellent. Complete 'got' where I was coming from, and very quickly determined I was ADHD (of which he was also correct). I had CBT with another NHS lady and despite CBT ultimately being inappropriate and not working (so we ended sessions early) we parted on very positive terms. A more recent NHS counselor also provided some clarity, and made me feel very safe and that I worthy as a person.

Ruth by contrast was just appalling. She was all over the place.

One week she'd tell you to keep a notebook of behaviours, patterns etc for us to look at. So I did this, but then when I took it along she completely disregarded it.

She stated that we'd put together a 'life timeline' to look at. But this never occurred. Even when I proactively went away and drew up a timeline (to try and assist/ give grounding and direction to the sessions, which is not a position that a client should be in), she again ignored this.

On our fifth session she produced 2.5 pages of a typed 'reformation letter'. She raced through reading it, and then straight away launched into 'how do you feel about it';

During her reading it I started to become anxious/ panicky, because the words on the page and paragraphs were starting to blur. Her voice started to muffle as well, due to trying to keep up with the written text and speed.

As nuero-divergents, we've spent a life time of having to mask. To the point we are completely confused about what are emotions stemming from disability abuse/ ableism, and what stem from 'genuine' events and relating PTSD.

In therapy situations we have to rely on the basis that we are in a safe space...

If you are a person with Dyscalcular, ADHD, Autism = Ruth is not safe.

Nuero-divergence is based on information processing delay. Ruth displayed zero awareness of this. She had supposedly attended Oliver McGowen training, which in some ways makes it worse - as it means she consciously made a choice to completely ignore the needs of her ND patient. Which caused harm to them.

She immediately medicalised the learning difference. Making it about me. Rather than looking at her own abusive behavior and failure as a therapist to care about and create a safe environment for persons of difference.

She was not grounded and secure in herself. At one point, when I was trying to explain the many mis-diagnosis I experienced by the NHS prior to ASD diagnosis, she responded that this made her feel 'anxious and nervous'. This is not safe - it made me feel like I had to mask, and withhold my experiences and trauma to support her. Which is the exact reason why nuero-diverse people have a high level of mental health issues (and end up in places like Sutherland!) because we're made to fell guilty for sharing how we feel. The abuses we face on a daily basis. We're repeatedly gaslit that we shouldn't question the medical misdiagnosis/ failings.

Continued in the pictures due to exceeding word count.....

lauren K.

I really needed support but was made to deep delve into my traumas just for the initial assessment with no support. This caused me a lot of distress so I missed 2 appointments but emailing them to notify and then got discharged! Thank you for looking after ill patients! Not.

Charlotte G.

They would prefer you kill yourself than treat you because that's easier for them. They genuinely don't care about their patients.

jordan K.

Been with the sutherland center for 3 years now, I've had my ups and downs but in the last year I can honestly say things have been much better than when I first started. My first psychiatrist, who left around a year ago, ignored me and denied looking into any diagnosees because he didnt think i was autistic and wanted me to get the assessment before looking into anything (i was on a 3 year waiting list-which is quick for an ASD assessment- and yes it did turn out i was autistic). He lied on forms and made out i was perfect and laughing in call when I was crying and unable to speak, told my mum I was overreacting when i was extremely vulnerable and had just come from the harplands, He would be talking to people behind the camera (i struggle leaving my house so do video calls instead of face to face) and would constantly cut me off.

My new psychiatrist is absolutely amazing and attentive, is very good at navigating tough situations and managed to diagnose me with multiple long term conditions I have suffered unknowingly for years, and got me the help i needed.

There was a blip in Feb of last year where I got wrongly discharged from the service with no support just 2 days after being diagnosed with 4 lifelong traumatic conditions by my new psychiatrist on a friday afternoon so i couldnt get in touch for 3 days to fix the issue, due to a mistake of someone misreading my treatment plan. After a rough weekend and a relapse from the stress, This was fixed and I was put back in the service with the same psychiatrist and a new care co-ordinator within about 1.5-2 months and recieved multiple apologies for the stress I was put through.

The amazing care co-ordinator, nagila, i was allocated is so extremely kind and understanding, listens to me and goes above and beyond to help me find different treatments and therapies to try. She is so compassionate and is one of very few professionals I've met who i can genuinely say has consistently attempted to, and has succeeded, in helping me.

I'm extremely greatful to my psychiatrist and care co-ordinator, I wouldn't be here without them both. I'm being moved to another service soon, which is extremely worrying so I just hope they're as supportive as my current team.

Amy W.

I waited 4 years to be under the Sutherland, after a trainee, a psychologist and a therapist that didn’t work out I was discharged, I’m the first person to ever ask to change therapist after 3 times, it’s unheard of so they wouldn’t let me and discharged me. Had a horrendous assessment there, had 3 assessments all together, didn’t get in, what got me in was going to a private psychiatrist who contacted them then I was under them.

The trainee was reading off a PowerPoint, when I speak about stuff her response didn’t make any sense as in she didn’t understand me, it made me feel uncomfortable she was the same age as me. The coping skills weren’t correlating with what I was feeling at the time, they were for when you have intense emotions so dunk your head in cold water type thing, I was dissociated and emotionally numb.

The psychologist was emotionless and not very responsive, felt like opening up to a brick wall, she also seemed uptight. A response she did have once was a very poor response from me saying something that falls under cptsd, it’s like it was a personal response. She had no empathy and her fake smile made me uncomfortable.

The therapist used humour and fake friendliness at first as a cheap way to make me trust him, multiple times he used self deprecating humour towards himself which I thought was quite odd. He also seemed to be lacking empathy and compassion. When I said I didn’t feel like it was a safe space I was told I should think about how I can make it a safe space. He said I couldn’t have the goal of being content because it can’t be measured. I said another goal of being able to feel and express anger and sadness he said feeling those aren’t going to do you any favours, to me repressing them won’t do me any favours. He came out with so much rubbish.

In my opinion a therapist has to figure how to make the person feel safe, validated, feel better and offer support, that’s the foundation. It’s important for them to be empathetic and compassionate so you can feel like you’re in a safe and trusting space to open up. The Sutherland centre does not offer this, they’re clueless and have no empathy, at the end of the day they still get paid, they get paid for doing a terrible job and if you raise valid issues then you’re the problem because you’re the difficult mentally ill person and they’re the one with the degree. The system is broken and having that piece of paper doesn’t mean anything.

I wish there was a support group for people who have experienced the hell that is the Sutherland centre.