Recovery programs

[unimportant]

That sounds really great about your therapist.

I am glad you have found one that works.

Unfortunately I have never met a therapist like that. Even psychiatrists have been difficult with one demanding I am on his drug of choice to get any service. I mean medicating people on an open model instead of based on individuals...

My hospital problem was interesting, I did not raise my voice, swear, threaten or be rude. I only stated I needed to wait quietly. The strange thing is, if I told you everything that has happened, you have to determine I am lying, as all this can not happen to one person.

Unitl I show the massive list of emails from hospitals health departments and ministers office.

@AlwaysMyself 

[AlwaysMyself]

Yikes, a pdoc demanding you take a certain med for them to be willing to help you? Yeah, i'd have an issue with that too @unimportant ! Patient-choice is really important. And medications can have bad side-effects too. Definitely not a one-size-fits-all thing. I can understand them recommending what they think is best, but saying they wont be your pdoc unless you take it... i dont agree with that either. Not looking at what is best for you at that time or willing to listen to your concern by the sound of it.

I would believe you, @unimportant . Sometimes the system fails people really badly. 😓. Especially the public system, but also the private one sometimes. I've been disappointed also with the lack of available supports for me too. I havent written to the service or ministers or anything though; i guess i dont feel they would/can do anything about it really. Not for an individual. Its bigger changes in the system that need to happen, and that takes a lot of influence to shift. I guess that is where advocacy organisations are some benefit because we can join them and have a voice through them combined with many others -- and the mass of people is where the influences comes in.

Would you consider a therapist again *if* the individual was recommended to you by someone who had a positive experience with them AND if you KNEW the therapist wouldn't discontinue supporting you? 

(I know you cant KNOW this, but im asking hyperthetical 🙂)

[unimportant]

Of course I am willing if someone was like that. I have been let down countless times, what are 10 more times in the grand sceme of things.

I am continually looking for and chasing support. It is just never avaiable the way they say it is. 

The public system is a joke and since I can not visit any service under my local health department, I am stuck paying top level private health insurance for when I need conrained support.

I make a lot of sacrifices for the possibiliry of care. Something that providers seem unwilling to provide.

I recomend thinking very clearly before contacting ministers, they will outright ignore you and you have to add actual pressure at their goverment building to get any movement from them.

This will come with intimidation tactics.

Next you will deal with the ombudsmen who looks rather bad as the health system tells them they will get to it when they can be bothered.

It is always interesting when the ombudsman is told to mind their own business.

The next step is the human rights commission, get ready for a long and expensive battle against their legal team.

After all that. Then you finally get to take them to court.

Make sure you have a good barrister.

The price of stubborn and justice sensitivity.

I wish I did not suffer from this, then I could run from these fights...

[AlwaysMyself]

I'm interested to hear more about your experie ce with the HRC, but only if you feel ok to share that is @unimportant . The reason being I have a claim pending in their queue (work-related disability discrimination) which will likely not be reviewed by them until the latter half of the year (based on theor advised backlog). But i thought they were a non-court / non-lawyer avenue? And thus free (other than your own time and energy and if you get legal advice; although i was able to get some free advice which is who suggested HRC to me as better to try than FWC initially). 

Sadly i do agree that public MH is very limited, and most of the time most people have to rely on private. I was essentially told by my local public MH that unless i plan to die within 2 weeks they can't offer me any support. And its not that the staff dont want to help -- its that the system doesnt have anything they are allowed to offer me.

Is there any common thread throughout your various experiences with MH supports that you can see around when or why they say they can't keep supporting you?

(It may not be through *all* of them - but even if a few of them have said something similar?)

It sounds like you've had a lot of really rotten bad luck with the therapists you have tried. 😣. 

I spent a year considering whether to try a new therapist because i know some have not been helpful in the past, and it is sooo discouraging to go through that process. I kept asking MH organisations if they could recommend anyone who had experience/interest in my #1 issue i wanted help for. They all said they can't give recommendations (or dont have a list) and to just look on the psychology today website or APS listing. But finally after 1 year a peer worker at a crisis centre nearish to me did give me the name of someone they thought might be suitable for my #1 and #2 issues both - and thats how i found the therapist i have now. I highly value personal recommendations in doctors and therapists, etc!

[unimportant]

I will be clear here that the Human right commission is indeed free and you are welcome te represent yourself free of charge.

Both sides are welcome to bring legal council in.

Who I am up against requires proper legal representation. This is not always the case and in the past, with my interacrions, I advise people to get ine free legal representation and thwn anothwr paid visit before rhe process to finalise your case.

If you so your homework, representing yourself should be fine. The HRC will assist you to know your rights.

Hospurals are well equipped for this though and fight hard. They always have.

As for my luck with therapists. I am scratching my head at that one too.

Sometimes I think I did something in a past life. Lmao.

That explains why resteraunts are out of what ever I order about 40% of the time.

Also even mentioning you are in a legal battle with your state based healthcare system seems to make therapists very nervous and dissapear.

I try not to disclose that to them but it does have to come up in exploring why things are.

It takes longer and longer for me to disclose now.

[AlwaysMyself]

@unimportant 

I have heard some MH professionals treat people differently if they see they have a diagnosis of "borderline personality" 😢😞. I don't, so I can't speak from experience - but I have heard it a lot from others who do. It makes me wonder if it is because they don't know (or feel confident) in how to treat it or respond to / support a person with it. 🤔. Although I do know some psychologists "don't take crisis patients" - but at least they're being upfront about this *before* taking on a private patient, and its often due to their own capacity to respond to urgent needs. As opposed to some DBT-specialist counsellors who I hear are really good for crisis-support and allow patients to contact them outside of scheduled appointments if in crisis. 🤔

From this knowledge, I am wondering if maybe when they hear of the history of being unhappy with services and/or the legal case if maybe they have fear that they may also end up not being able to best support you? 🤔 i don't know - its just a thought. I can definitely see why you would want to sus them out first before you tell them about it -- if you do at all! 

I do think its very reasonable to tell them upfront though what you DO NOT want as part of treatment (if anything) as well as having concern that treatment may stop suddenly without any transition support and that this would be a very distressing thing for you. I think that is really helpful to establish what you do or don't need.

Before making an appointment with my counsellor, i wrote them an email. It explained that they had been recommended word-of-mouth, and laid out what my main areas of needing support were (incl topics and level of risk). And that i was wanting to know if *they* felt they could support me with these things. Because i didnt want to have to go through the process of appointments and explaining everything if they weren't prepared to talk about the topics I needed to. This was my way of "pre-vetting" them 😅 in a way that wasnt as difficult for me.

[unimportant]

I am not sure about Bipolar or BPD as I do not have a lot of experience with these conditions.

I know people with schizophrenia are often treated as less than hyman by iur MH system, I have seen that soo man6 times it is not funny.

I have a different problem that seems to confuse a lot of people with one even telling me it doesbt exist.

This xase for instabce has bliwn iut of proportuon and left me hanging out here, now tarnished as the diffucylt ibe for seeking truth from a broken system.

This means that even posting here now I have contrubuted to the problem.

Of course no one cares til you make a noise they don't like, and even though they made it that you have to escelate thar far, it will only be your care thar suffers from then on.

[RiverSeal]

Hey @unimportant, thanks for sharing your experiences with the community! Sounds like you have been through quite a bit with the MH system. I encourage you to continue to connect with your peers as they may have some insights to share from their own experiences. RiverSeal