chibamSenior Contributor
What Do *YOU* Want SANE To Tell The Government At Their Sit-Down With Them?
I've just discovered that people from SANE will be having a sit down with the government on Mon 26/07/2021(https://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore.ashx?hearingid=30066&submissions=false), as part of the government's latest inquiry into mental health and suicide prevention. So I thought it might be a good idea to start a thread where we, the members of the SANEForums community, can express what mental health and suicide issues we'd like to see SANE address with the government.
I'll get the ball rolling:
For my part, I would like SANE to tell the government:
* We need a massive increase in the amount of therapists who provide practical help for people with real-life issues that need to be resolved, not just therapists who sit in a room with a patient and browbeat them into "coping" with their living hells, or telling them that they've got to solve their problems all by themselves. (If they knew how & had the capability to solve their problems alone, they wouldn't be paying some therpaist $150/hr. to "help" them, would they?)
* Their interest in suicide prevention MUST acknowledge fates that are worse then death, and that suicide is not the worst outcome that can befall a person. This awareness must be applied to all initiatives that are geared towards helping people - patients must be able to state to their helpers what situations they considder to be a fate worse then death, and the helpers must treat such scenarios as being "out of bounds" areas that they must never navigate their patient in to. Some things are just not okay. They are even less okay then death.
* The government needs to do much, much more then simply throw money at people(i.e. jobkeeper) in order to give them a worthwhile quality of life. I know that a lot of people stress out about making ends meet. But for many, many others - such as myself - having the financial security that allows us to survive is utterly worthless so long as we have no reason to survive! Even the starving among us need initiatives to give us love, companionship, fun, happiness and a contributing role in society much more then we need food on our dinner tables or roofs over our heads.
* This currant government inquiry has a woeful lack of patient/'mentally-ill'/suicidal contribution. Everybody has been saying recently that patients & 'mentally ill', ect. people need to be at the center of all future design and management of the mental health system. But when you look through the documentation on this inquiry there is virtually zero presence in there from the actual patient/'mentally ill'/suicidal community. It's mostly input from large organizations, so-called "experts", and so, so much input from therapists. And this lack of perspective shows in the way that a lot of the issues are being discussed! IMHO, there's an abundance of people "just not getting it" in the way issues have been discussed thus far. The inquiry needs to make stronger efforts to gather direct input from patients of the system, and other "mentally ill" and suicidal people, as well. Our perspective is essential for effective outcomes to inquiries like this one!
That's my 2 cents. What do you want SANE to tell the government?
I agree with all of this! So much great stuff here, I can't possible acknowledge it all as adequately as it deserves, but thank you! Especially the stuff about the poor quality & harmful outcomes of the MH system as it stands, and the inaccountability of the people who run it. Thank you, 
