After Winchester, Summer 2011

• When I arrived in London I went to the Maudsley hospital and told them I was severely traumatized and needed help.
• The maudsley sent me to Kings College A&E where I was assessed by a mental health professional, he was very nice and kind and he got me some food. He did an assessment and said he would send it back over to the Maudlsey and hopefully they could refer me to the traumatic stress unit, although I was told that the waiting list was months long.The assessment didn't consider me to be mentally ill, and I was encouraged by the fact that again, no-one attempted to detain me or considered me any sort of risk.
• I heard nothing from the Maudsley, so I went back there. The staff were kind but said basically the waiting list was huge and it would be over a year before I could be treated even if I could get a referral, there was no sign that the report from Kings college had been accepted as a referral, and so the Maudsley kindly phoned my doctor, where I was still registered in Winchester, the doctor said that the 'local mental health' services at Winchester would have to agree a referral, she had previously applied for a referral for me to the Maudsley traumatic stress unit on my request when I was still in Winchester and nothing appeared to have come of that.
• Anyway, I ended up frustrated and upset, and to my shame, shouting at the doctor that if I was not helped, I would not survive, poor lady, it isn't her fault.
• So, basically, I never got the help I needed and pleaded for at the Maudsley.
• Those who don't know, the Maudsley is the biggest neurological and psychiatric hospital in the country, based in London and it was where I was assessed and diagnosed for the autistic spectrum, hence me knowing of the Maudsley and pleading for further help there.

• I was very very deeply distressed and traumatized while on the streets of London, it was a very dark time indeed, I went to London in the hope of escaping the Diocese of Winchester, unfortunately, judging by the Korris report and the way I was treated by those who looked up my record, I didn't escape at all, and London is very very harsh on rough sleepers, the latest news is all about anti-homeless spikes, but there is CHURCH in London which has a notice warning rough sleepers that they and their posessions will be hosed down if they are found around the church.

• Interestingly enough, I attended this same church for morning prayer a few times a week, and asked them why this notice was there, and the lady who I asked said that she doubted our nice vicar was anything to do with it, it was probably the council.
• I have to say, that that church was actually very tolerant of the homeless who lived in their grounds, seeking shelter in the locked church gardens at night where they would be safe from attacks from strangers, they were London church, limited in what they could do, but I believe the lady who said that it was not the church but the council who put the hosing down notice there.
• And to that church's credit, they were a Church of England church, but they got me coffee, they made me welcome and they chatted to me, and they treated me as human, just as the Diocese of Winchester hadn't, and I had no fall-out with them. Credit to that church! They even offered to help house me, but, that would have led to a nightmare of my records being looked up, the Diocese of Winchester being contacted and me being villified and driven out.
• I had to leave that church behind with no word when I left London, because I had to leave everyone in London behind with no notice, which saddens me, the churches and homeless and daycentres who looked after me, I had to leave them all without any word that day, soaked from the rain and struggling to walk at all, I left London or I would have died on the streets there.

More to come.