Trigger warnings: Child abuse, domestic violence, mention of suicide.
You have hit the nail on the head. I could not agree more with you. This is said as a consumer, as we know from above I am a consumer of mental health services. At one point I was also a practitioner and it was soul-destroying.
Firstly, you are 100% right that psychological problems are created in a society with winners and losers.Big losers in our society right now are children & women. I worked child protection for a while, and I was a child that was not protected. 1 in 3 calls to the child protection helpline are not investigated. Working with children, I had one child say to me "What happens if, because I told you about what goes on at home, my mum finds out and I come back to school with broken bones?" Even now, remembering this makes me want to vomit. Hit in the guts. I sent many kids back home to emotionally and physically violent and abusive homes. I followed all procedure within my state's legislation, and they still went back into these homes. There was nothing I could do but keep records. I was abused when I was younger, as well. And, my counsellor at the time did the same shit. Followed procedure but I was not safe. I was also victim to domestic violence as an adult. My counsellors again followed procedure, but I was still not safe, and the perpetrators were never held to account and continued to ruin lives. I believe the lack of justice and our broken child protection & criminal systems are a big part of this "mental health epidemic." There's also many other factors you could point to, but pointing to them requires those in power taking action in these areas. This is Why I firmly believe we should not talk about suicide as a "mental illness" problem, it is a social problem that some people feel they can't live in the society in which they are living, they are not protected, cared for, treated with respect & dignity in this society. Most health professionals are not given education in sociology as a requirement of their degree, but it really should be.
Secondly, I have tried to link in with all the leading research institutions for something new and different to help me with my trauma. But all that is being done is repeat trials of CB-effing-T (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy). I hate CBT. And as an "insider" let me tell you the truth behind a practitioner saying to you "CBT is the best model of treatment for (insert condition), there is a large evidence base behind it." Let me translate this, "We have only done clinical trials testing the effectiveness of CBT against NO INTERVENTION!, and we found modest improvements for people in the CBT group versus in the group RECEIVING NOTHING. And we haven't tested any other therapeutic modalities as much as CBT vs NOTHING." It's this circular nonsense of repeating trials of CBT versus NOTHING, and never trying anything different.
Now let me tell you as a consumer, why CBT sucks. I know when my thoughts are not helping my situation, I have a lot of insight into my thoughts. But my thoughts don't change my situation, and they don't change how unsafe my body feels. One hope I have is the emergence of "Trauma informed care", but this is not something that is being taught to health professionals as a required part of their qualififcations, and it is not implemented in policy in health settings in Australia. It's not a priority for these instituitions , the people in charge (largely now, ex corporates NOT health professionals in management!) don't know about it. And if we tried, we would probably bastardise it and it would become another empty phrase like "person-centered care" (meaningless.)
........ More to come
