NHS Wandsworth Talking Therapies (formerly Talk Wandsworth) - London

Simon B.

I had the most horrible experience, instead of being help, the person allocated to me, provoked me more harm that could ever imagine. From my experience with Beth, I realized she just comes to get paid without any professionalism or empathy towards the people she works with or the situation that they are going through.

She allowed herself to call me even after I officially announced that I didn't want to work with her anymore. She called me just to cause me another panic attack.

I DO NOT RECOMMEND HER, if you don’t have problems, she definitely creates them for you.

Bas M.

I work in mental health services and attempted to access this service for CBT for myself and have never experienced anything as hostile and unhelpful as this service. If this is the treatment people are getting when trying to access low level Intervention then no wonder our patients are exasperated and frustrated by mental health services.

The assessment process feels like a tick box exercise with zero tailoring to any patient specific factors, it was so cold and unempathetic and I was expected to share deeply personal information with someone who had made zero attempt to build rapport. I spent 20 minutes answering ‘no’ to an array of risk associated questions, before spending 5 minutes discussing my referral and being told the maximum offer would be group therapy sessions? Then after the assessor ‘discussed with the team’ I was informed that my questionnaire scores ‘did not meet caseness’ for treatment under the service. Seeing as I was informed to refer myself to this service for low level CBT I was shocked and quite frankly appalled at this response. When I expressed my shock at how I’m not ‘unwell enough’ for treatment I was told ‘I’m here past my working hours so I’m going to end the call’

Honestly shocking.

Queenie B.

After having open heart surgery, being hospitalised with fluid on my lungs, I was forced to request appointment change when I returned to work. I felt bullied by the admin and when I tried to explain she made me feel so bad, I couldn't just walk out of work for the times she put forward. I eventually found I could have been offered an 8.00am appointment, but was never told this. I was subsequently kicked off the programme, despite be on the waiting list for over 12 months. My treatment by the service was absolutely disgraceful and I would never go back....

Lauryn P.

WHY THEY HAVE NOT BEEN INVESTIGATED AND SHUT DOWN IS BEYOND RIDICULOUS. OVER 20 YEARS LOCALS HAVE BEEN REFERRED HERE AND 9/10 HATE THE SERVICE, CAN'T GET SEEN, ARE JUDGE OR DISMISSED DURING TREATMENT AND LEFT TO LINGER.
NOONE AT THIS PLACE ACTUALLY CARES ABOUT YOUR MENTAL HEALTH. IF THEY DID THEY WOULDN'T MAKE CONTACTING THEM A MISSION TO MARS. DO NOT SUBJECT YOURSELF OUT OF DESPERATION YOU WILL REGRET IT AND QUESTION YOUR OWN JUDGEMENT. If you are referred by your gp or any local health sector. DO NOT USE THIS SERVICE. THEY MAKE YOUR MENTAL HEALTH WORSE, YOU HAVE TO CONSTANTLY CHASE THEM FOR AN ASSESSMENT BEFORE BEING PLACED BACK ONTO A WAITING LIST TO HOPEFULLY BE SEEN. ITS NOT A GUAREE YOU WILL BE SEEN, AFTER EXPRESSING YOUR HEALTH NEEDS. AVOID THIS PLACE AND SEEK HELP ELSEWHERE. PREFERABLY PRIVATE. JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE THERE DOES NOT MEAN THEY ARE USEFUL. ITS IMPORTANT TO FEEL SAFE AND COMFORTABLE WHEN SEEKING MENTAL TREATMENT. DONT GET SO DESPERATE THAT YOU FORCE YOURSELF TO USE THIS SERVICE. YOUR HEALING WILL NOT COMMENCE HERE BUT WHEN YOU FIND THE RIGHT PROFESSIONAL TO CONNECT WITH WHO IS PASSIONATE, AVAILABLE AND WILLING TO SEE YOU HEAL COMPLETELY.
IF YOU COMPLAINT TO THEIR PALS TEAM YOU ARE MET BY BIAS, ONE SIDED STAFF WHO WORK AT ST GEORGE'S SO THEY WILL COVER THEIR STAFFS BACK WITH LIES, THEY WILL TAKE 3-6-9 MONTHS TO GET BACK TO YOU REGARDING THE ISSUE!!! ST GEORGE'S PALS COMPLAINT PROCEDURE COVERES, DENTIST, DR, COUNSELLORS WITHIN WANDSWORTH, THEY WORK TOGETHER TO HIDE THE TRUTH AND GET PAID TO DO NOTHING..
NHS OMBUDSMAN, SEEK TO COMPLAIN AND DON'T LET THESE COMPANIES GET AWAY WITH DOING THE BARE MINIMUM FOR GOVERNMENT FUNDING.
PLEASE PLEASE COMPLAIN AS THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR OVER 10 YEARS.

Outdated service. Lines open at 9am not 8am as stated. They constantly bombard you with private number calls and texts with your personal information.
I hate that people are in need of a mental health service and they can't get the basics together.

Nihilist P.

Girlfriend tried to kill herself on 5 days ago, going in for major surgery in Nov, im literally a transed gendered.
But unfortunately, the form says no therapy for me because I am not sad enough.
Um- yeah- cool

Carla S.

Felt worse after contacting them. The assessment call was so robotic and cold, with such an almost inhumane approach. They even said there are people that really need therapy and I took it as if what I was experiencing was not important enough. I was shocked and had no reaction to respond. Better to stop advertising this service for the sake of mental health.

Soph

I’ve tried three times with Talk Wandsworth. The first time it took about a month to be offered either group therapy or texting therapy. Group sounds like my worst nightmare so I chose texting, the therapist seemed nice but we only had two sessions before she went on holiday and because there wasn’t a set date, only email communications, I didn’t see the emails and received a letter saying my therapy had been terminated. Second time about 8 or so months later I started consults but they kept calling me when I wasn’t free instead of the times I provided that I would be and then stopped calling all together. In my most recent attempt I have now been on a waitlist for 9 months after two initial months of phone call assessments where I guess they decided I wasn’t mentally ill enough to have any therapy options yet and had to just wait. So now it’s been 11 months, mind you there was never a mention of a waitlist during the two I spent struggling to even get consultations. I even asked if I was supposed to just put my issues on hold for 40 weeks and they stayed silent. Back when I was receiving consults, prior to this long interval of silence from them, they would fail to take into account the times I would be free, i work full time on a rota not a schedule so I have small pockets of time when im free that are rarely within working hours on week days which is why the consultations themselves took about 2 months. I ended up having to try, and failing, to decipher my practitioners email from a very muffled voice note. When they threatened to terminate the consultations because they kept calling me only whilst I was working, i ended up calling them and they made me feel like a complete burden for doing so, I have anxiety that isn’t fair! You cannot be making mentally ill people feel like a burden for asking for help!! The hardest part is taking the step to get help and you make it extremely difficult that is why this is already my third time trying to get help from you because I keep feeling forced to give up.

Jes

If they deem you to not be on the very brink of taking your own life, they’ll refer you to their “low intensity” group sessions which have months long wait times. They don’t actually tailor anything to their clients, if one wanted group talking sessions there are plenty of community organisations they could go which don’t involve months of bureaucracy. What even is the point of your service?