Exclusive: Mental health charities bend rules to try and help more patients

“We’re seeing people we probably shouldn’t be", one counsellor says, as charities resort to listing personality disorders as 'depression' and allowing students to treat increasingly complex cases.

By Jessica Bradley

TW: References to suicide

Mental health charities across the country are taking on cases beyond their capacity and skillset as they try to accommodate patients despairing of an already overloaded NHS, The Lead can report. Their patients are often people who face years-long waitlists caused by over a decade of chronic underfunding, but c…