@DigitalDrifter I'm sorry to hear that you were put through this. This certainly hasn't been my experience with dealing with doctors here in BC. I've only ever encountered two doctors that claimed that ME was either psychological or depression and both of those doctors were British trained doctors who immigrated to Canada. The one doctor didn't even last here a year before she left. ME is not considered mental illness, and even if it were, it is very hard to commit someone to a psych ward. You either have to be suicidal or considered a risk to other people and even then a lot of people get turned away. Britain must have an abundance of psych beds judging by the number of people with ME who gets committed for no other reason than having ME.
It's a weird set-up in the UK. There is a shortage. We hear of the police picking up some with mental health issues (not the ME sort of situation I don't think, but on news programmes) and them being stuck in police cells short-term.
But because most psych beds nowadays are actually private hospitals/centres that NHS uses and I think CCGs (?) have contracts with (ie I believe I've heard in news that most of our mental health beds are now actually run by private providers here?) and there are a
really small number of NHS-run beds, and because you sometimes hear of people (not ME specifically) going to places not appropriate for their condition or halfway across the country from their family (like kids many hours from their parents) - and technically each trust/authority has its own beds, I never fully know which/what they are referring to when they say shortage etc. Section would then compel 'somewhere to be found' (? I think).
There are stories in the paper of people with autism coming through who have been sectioned like a decade ago on the basis of needing a certain type of care and instead ended up in the wrong type of place for the entire time not even getting that treatment - which makes me think that the section doesn't have to correspond to availability anyway (I don't know what the exact details are) etc.
Another important thing is that hospitals here are really becoming A&E, routine ops, and a few key major illnesses. They are not set up for long stays (or short for certain conditions) anyway and really overwhelmed. There are no 'cottage hospital' type places really. Social care has shortages. So if you want to put someone somewhere to 'be looked after/over' you've few options whatever they have. GPs haven't really done home visits on any scale for many years and/as there is a shortage.
The 'duty of care' responsibility sitting with them (a GP) by virtue of CCG guidelines, and with lack of options and knowledge - nothing they can do/don't know could make passing over responsibility to someone happy to claim they can 'help' seem desirable from a liability perspective
In many areas as CCG guidelines didn't allow referals to specialists/clinics or required 'special applications' and such places could only take milder people anyway (one of which in my area was done in 2021 - backdated to 2020 as the last one was 2017 and they are supposed to be done every 3 years, but doesn't lapse until 2024 unless they update it based on whatever is covered by their 'significant developments').
And yes all the 2007 and lingering mental health insinuations/ambiguities and 'false hope recovery stats' and 'treatment claims' for ME and the FND and other names seem to give more excuse on basis of 'own thoughts/behaviours/should recover', 'exercise avoidance anxiety' etc. I can see why if you are so severe that PEM from quite small exertions is often permanently worsening, and that going down hill is possible even if you are 'doing the right thing' you'd be concerned it was clear in guidance. But also that perhaps there are options/guidance written in for that circumstance to at least provide a 'if x do y' pathway/reassurance/back-cover if a GP left with responsibility for managing someone might panic.
