Dr Benedict Di Mambro

Dr Benedict Di Mambro 2018-05-29 Person 5 5 0

I have been treated in an acute ward setting twice by Dr Di Mambro. The first time was in 2003 after my first episode of psychosis aged 25 (later his diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder was confirmed) while he was a Junior Doctor. Subsequently, he was my consultant during a particularly difficult episode I suffered in 2016. I had decided to come off all medications as I was not managing to function properly on my medication regime. This led to a period of extreme instability and I relapsed into taking illicit substances as a means of coping, which ultimately exacerbated the matter. During this period I realise now that I was particularly difficult to communicate with due to the lack of suitable medication regime, but conversely I was committed to only taking one medication at a time and avoiding over-medication. I always felt that Dr Di Mambro understood what I was trying to achieve in taking this approach, even if disagreeing with it because it was risky and did result in a chaotic period. There have been several times during acute admission where I have disagreed with Dr Di Mambro's assessment of what needed to be done, but I can honestly say that he is a very reassuring consultant in the sense that I always felt that he had my best interests at heart and was exercising his duty of care. One of my profiles when I become manic is that I try high risk strategies in order to learn about my condition. Having Dr Di Mambro to talk to in the lead up to admission under Section 2 resulted in the a good medium term outcome, even if the short term was turbulent. Dr Di Mambro has a very straightforward way of communicating. He is up front about what he thinks needs to be done, and is considerate with your personal situation. He has taken treatment decisions which I have been unhappy with, but these have always been in respect of admission and ward leave conditions.... any decisions which involved medical treatments such as the increasing or lowering of doses, or the changing of medications (the things that really matter) I always felt fully involved with, and he has never forced or coerced me into a treatment regime which I was not happy with or willing to accept freely. Also, in the 2016 admission I thnk he allowed me as much leniency as possible trying things my way before they detriorated and he took the decision that I had to go into hospital under Section 2. All in all, a great doctor and a nice person. He builds rapport while maintaining clear boundaries which is really useful when you're in an acute ward setting or dealing with Mental Health Act Sectioning procedures. You will be able to know where you stand with him, and can trust that if he has an agenda which he thinks will benefit you, he will be transparent about it. The only reason I have put 5 stars for listening to me is that there are incredible time restraints on psychiatrists, and while I think that Dr Di Mambro makes great use of his limited time, the circustances are far from ideal. This is not a reflection on Dr Di Mambro himself, but (as with all psychiatrists) the time pressure means that you don't usually have enough time to explain your situation. Dr Di Mambro knows this, and is very good at maximising what can be done given these constraints. In a better system, he would get Five Stars without question, but be mindful that no psychiatrist, given the current state of the NHS, is going to be able to spend with you the amount of time ideally required. My advice to anyone using Dr Di Mambro is to realise that he is very good at managing crisis situations without resorting to oppressive measures.