Reviews

“Talk Liverpool should be absolutely ashamed of themselves. If this is the best that Liverpool and Liverpool City Council has...” to offer - then we might as well all give up now. The entire service is one of calamity and incompetency. There is no personable skills with anyone you talk to (who trains these people?!). This isn’t just a job to collect money at the end of the month, this is vulnerable people’s lives. The counselling is done mainly by people unqualified staff in training, fresh out of uni or those with low graded qualifications. Talk Liverpool generally takes 13 weeks of waiting (a quarter of a year). Once this time has elapsed, you’ll get a letter or a call without much warning that you have an upcoming appointment - so if you work, beware! … and if you work a Mon-Fri 9-5 job, unlucky, that’s the only hours available, so be prepared to take a half day off work only for them to cancel without any time to rearrange your schedule for the next date they propose. I’ve tried this service more than once- the first time was when I was younger and found it to be very unhelpful, writing notes of how I felt on a daily basis and my therapy consisting of the “counsellor” talking utter dross and basically just giving me what you could call homework. The second time - after being messed about by them for weeks with cancellations, I just gave up. I contacted Merseycare crisis team as I was in a bad way and when they pulled up my records, they informed me they could see I had been referred to Talk Liverpool but was down as “did not attend”, which I thought was an absolute insult considering the lengths I had went through to go to an appointment on the ORIGINAL days that they cancelled on me last minute. Liverpool City Council have a lot to answer for, in a city where suicide is becoming more and more rife. I feel as though unless you have schizophrenia or psychosis, they simply haven’t got the resources or funding. My advice would be for them and to Talk Liverpool would be to get their house in order and cut off further mental health issues at the source. You are better than this absolutely banal, humdrum dross that you are serving us.I eventually had an appointment with Merseycare which I put forward I was unwilling to go to Talk Liverpool again and went through a two hour assessment, only to be called up days later… what did they offer me… you guessed it, Talk Liverpool.As I’m unwilling to go back, they are putting my name forward to Step Forward, l a level 4 service that I’m hoping to get on to. My advice to others would be to try local mental health charities too, such as Brain Charity, Life Rooms, Rotunda etc and try and find a different avenue. Good luck and I wish you the best! Stay strong.”

“Initial phone assessment great, got told the best treatment option for me to begin with was their help with depression....” Turns out it was actually the basics of generalised CBT. All of which I already knew, and one of the bits of "advice" was, and I quote, "make more friends". After 3 weeks of this and many times communicating with my supporter that I felt this was over simplified and generic, and also was extremely basic information. The supporter also glossed over almost every time I spoke about my trauma, except for one time when she offered to send me information on additional services, when I said no, it was okay that's great.3 weeks in I'm told, since you keep mentioning CBT isn't helping you, let's talk about counselling. Turns out what that means is, we're going to discharge you from Talk Liverpool. Here's some links, find another service and get some counselling. If that doesn't work, refer back to us and do CBT again. Also the links I was given - one service not accepting referral, one only for under 25s which rules me out, one without trained counsellors but which offers a "listening ear from another woman to hear your sorrows", and one which is 2+ hours away from my house.”

“Worst service I've ever received.I had to cancel an appointment due to being unwell, I rang prior to cancel and...” was told that I would be rang to rearrange the appointment.Next thing was a letter through the door to say I'd be discharged from the service.The actual therapist (rosemarie jones) clearly couldn't care less. And I haven't heard anything from talkliverpool regarding why I've been discharged.Disgusting treatment that just makes me never want to ask them for help again.”

“As a healthcare professional who previously worked for years in Liverpool, I know for a fact that this service has...” helped countless patients. I now live in a country where people pay a lot of money for these types of psychological therapies, so I would encourage people to appreciate the free access to invaluable psychological care.”

“My experience with TL: If you need help you won't find it here.Waited 6 weeks to take a course that...” told me all the things I already know.Went to a group therapy with about 15 others. Learnt everything I already knew (again). Got a CBT appointment out the blue a year later with 2 days notice. Tried to re-arrange that appointment (twice) got a continuous beep for 40 seconds. (No email for social anxiety disorders)I am now going to be assumed not interested and that chance is now wasted.Been feeling pretty awful during all this time and been to A&E twice. I have received no help yet from the length I have been with this service. Funny how people giving 5 star reviews actually got therapists or councillors assigned to them. Guess they were the chosen ones.Disappointed.”