SICK OF LACK OF TRAUMA SERVICES

@M_P90 Me too. I don't engage anymore for those reasons, but I hear the complaints and they are worse than distressing.

Those in a position to do something about this situation are making a lot of meaningless gestures and talk - and it makes no difference to those needing action now. It's not necessarily more money which is needed, in my opinion- just more competence, empathy and follow-up. And accountability.

And to make matters worse, people who already are hurting are trying to help and support others. It's a disgrace.

@M_P90 @Historylover

Agreed.

I will say it again. There is no legit reason for gap fees being the norm .... whether it be pdoc or psychologist. Those professions have lost my respect. I tried to uphold thier value as a sibling and parent of someone struggling with MI for about 40 years. Not Happy Jan.

@Appleblossom When I started treatment for Depression many years ago, I was medically insured. When my family broke down and I was on my own, my ex-psychiatrist told me to drop my insurance and he would treat me on a bulk bill basis.

He practised at a private hospital and, over the years the demand grew so great that it was necessary for the owners to buy the adjoining property, and then build more besides. It has become nothing more than an industry of people 'on repeat' - like a production line. A serious backlog of desperate sufferers has developed - an absolute log jam! No-one gets out of the system - and they just keep getting more.

This is such a serious problem and we sufferers are the only ones taking it seriously.

Excuse me while I vent - so many seem to think that because a psychiatrist, psychologist, counsellor - whoever - is attending to them, they are in good hands. I wish everyone understood that they are not all equal!

Some therapists have mastered the art of bluffing their way through - making it look like they know what they are doing. They have book-learning to varying extents - depending on their capabilities - remember some must have come bottom of their class but still qualified, while others seem to think that medication is a fix all for everything.

We have family problems and social problems creating this mess, and 'professionals' who have no accountability - or conscience, it seems. And those in positions to fix this system attend to this little bit, or that, to make it seem that they are doing something - and the mess this has all created is enormous!

Today it is all about the money. Bulk billing is shamefully absent. This mess must be costing an absolute fortune and there are no benefits forthcoming - just more of the same! And NO ACCOUNTABILITY.

But the most important cost is at the personal, individual level!

Whatever happened to prevention? Whatever happened to cure?

These psychological problems were caused - they are not some mystical occurence no-one understands.

Agreed @Historylover

IMO you are not venting but stating a serious problem for everyone.

Yes I have noticed the rise in what constitutes serious MH rpobs. Hmmm.

Yes, not all therapists are equal.

Various sources of funding matters. Even if bulk billing is part of the answer, it goes deeper. The medicalisation of human social, psychological and emotional is not healthy.

For me personally, I am now outraged by the lack of services rendered under bulk billing and the arrogance of many in the fireld towards those who ask for it. Then I go another step, as last April I was abused by one such. Yes she lost my business, but she was still paid for not delivering a service. Accountability, when it is so easy to discount the client on grounds of mental health. What a joke. I am crankier about it now. When I joined this forum, I was working for advocacy on historical cases, and a little open to the hope that progress had been made in the field. Ahem ... cough cough ... progress!

This has been my reality for the last 6 years. I'm beyond burnt out from trying desperately to find help for trauma in Australia. There is no help. I tried the inpatient hospital system.....no help there but its does definately cause more trauma. I've tried private psychologists only to be met with judgement and rejection where I expected to find understanding and empathy. It was a psychologist who caused the severe trauma I've been stuck in for 6 years, which has destroyed my life.

I get angry when my FB and Twitter feed show me posts about all the trauma insights coming out of USA, when I'm starving for help. Screaming out for help, literally begging has done nothing, in fact people respond with anger and judgment instead of empathy and care.

I just rang the SANE counselling line for the first time, desperately hoping they'd have knowledge of a support group of people I could turn to and they have nothing.

I can't even work out how to create my own thread on the forum board, why do they make it so difficult?

I have so much potentital, im intelligent, a leader, I have a big heart and its like watching a vital, beautiful, powerful animal being slowly slaughtered right before it reaches its peak. All my potential is being constantly shat on and no one cares. The horrendous suffering and terror and pain I've gone through and am going through and when I reach out for help my hand gets slapped away.

I have learnt a hatred for the human species over the last 5 years. I've been grieving the loss of my family, my career, my fertility, my potential. The final thing left to grieve is me. Letting go of my vitality, my ego, my promise.

There is no help, even as I type this a part of me hopes I'm wrong but I've travelled all over Australia looking for help. I can't afford to access therapy from the people who do understand, in the USA. I have no safe family, no close friends, just a cat that I feel guilty for not connecting with enough due to trauma. Everyone in my family who understood me is dead. I'm trapped in a town where there is no help or support. Not even a support group. I don't want to die. I just can't live like this.....its not living, its barely surviving. I just need people. I just need unconditional love. I need my psychologist to keep her promises and repair the rupture. Shes the only person I had once Grandma died.

Hello @Gyllien

I dont know much about your circumstances, but encourage you to perservere with the forum. Keep posting on this thread now you have started it ... as you get the hang of the technical and structure of the forum, your options will increase.

Trauma informed therapy would be a great idea, if it was not just lip service.

I suspect in the USA it is even harder to find MH support unless you are very well heeled.

I also guess that one major player in the field got a lot of his insights from being born in The Hague in The Netherlands.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessel_van_der_Kolk

I probably have C PTSD but not enough time with pdoc to be properly diagnosed. I also have significant quals in the therapy field and still find it hard ...

Take Care Apple.

We've all been talking about this for years, @Appleblossom - but nothing is changing.

My ex-psychiatrist made a good living out of my treatment - cured my psychological problems, or most of them - but ruined my life completely. It was, for me, all for nothing, and at great personal and financial cost, as I took his advice - including damaging financial advice - thinking he actually had my best interest at heart.

All of this treatment was on the public purse. And I am just one patient and he is just one psychiatrist. The financial cost of this, just in such services alone, is immeasurable. Then there is the cost to the economy of lost income, pensions, medication, public servants to process the paperwork, etc. etc. I cannot imagine the financial burden this pretence of psychiatric 'treatment' has on the health budget. They must be absolutely reeling under the burden - yet still they are not attending to its total lack of productivity, and more importantly, holding these individuals to account.

But I again repeat - the greatest cost is to the suffering patients.

It's hard to reconcile that lives are actually being damaged, and lost, in this 'medical' fiasco.

Hi @Gyllien,

I'm hearing your frustration and struggle. Definitely understandable given everything. I'm wondering if you've heard of Blue Knot Foundation? They are an Australian service who specialise in trauma, so you may find something helpful there. They joined us here on the Forums for a few live discussions a few months ago which you might like to read back through- this one took place on the Family & Friends side of the forums & this one on the Lived Experience side.

As @Appleblossom said, I'd encourage you to keep posting here also and reach out if you have any questions along the way. I hope you'll find some sense of community here and a little of the support it sounds you may have been looking for. Take care 💐

Words fail me @Gyllien. We seem to be walking the same path. I've tried everyone, everywhere and everything trying to find a system or individuals who are actually doing their job and are able to help. I've actually thought of starting a group for suffering folk - like this forum, but in the flesh, but I wouldn't know how to go about it. I'm sick of suffering, sick of hearing of so many good people's lives wasting for want of actual support and help to find their direction. This forum has been the only place I have been able to get any relief from my pain. But talking about problems wouldn't be all it would be about. It would have to have a social aspect as so many of us have no family or friends. And we need friends who are sincere and not judgemental. I just wish I knew how to bring it successfully about and bring some healing to our badly damaged society.

It's amazing isn't it, that all of these so-called 'services' are out there, yet we can't find anything which actually helps us! Everything is a SHAM!

Hi Tide,

Thanks for your reply. Yes I've been in touch with blueknot a few times. Its been very disappointing that they've not been able to help me and actually told me I was too traumatised for them to help. They left me with no help.