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In which way do you suggest,Sane could help improve the treatment of Mentally Ill in Public Hospitals?

In which way do you suggest,Sane could help improve the treatment of Mentally Ill in Public Hospitals?

From my research,and things I have seen in the past,stigma is still very present from Hospital staff and/or Ambulance workers towards people with Mental Illnesses, particularly Hospitals in more suburban areas outside of the main cities.
They are still treated very poorly and spoken to disrespectfully, and bystanders will say nothing out of fear of retribution or fear of ridicule.
I don't think any of the recent attempts to end stigma has "touched" these Hospitals at all as they are oblivious that these anti stigma campaigns even exist.
For example,these staff members are more likely to watch forty on TV as opposed to watching Abc Mental As programme or the Q and A programme about depression etc.

What ideas do you have that Sane could do to help expose and address the stigmatising/discrimatory attitudes that still exists at these suburban Public Hospitals?

My idea is that Sane could create a detailed survey questionnaire that would ask people who have been patients of these hospitals to rate out of 1-5 how respectfully they were treated,what tone they were talked to,what their experience was etc...
But Sane should give these surveys out in the hospitals grounds and not just online so they could reach people's views who may otherwise not go online or have access to or cognitive ability to use the internet.

That way,organisations like Sane would have a greater idea into what problems still exist,and in what areas,and be able to create a plan to counter them because sometimes I feel the only people that are tuned into "anti stigma campaigns" are people that either have a mental illness,their families or people that already believe mentally ill shouldn't be stigmatised against,but the "perpertrators" themselves are actually tuned out,if this makes sense.

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In response to: In which way do you suggest,Sane could help improve the treatment of Mentally Ill in Public Hospitals?

Re: In which way do you suggest,Sane could help improve the treatment of Mentally Ill in Public Hospitals?

Yes Appleblossom, the past is what shapes our future. I'm so sorry you had to go through all that. You must be a very strong person to have survived.

In response to: Re: In which way do you suggest,Sane could help improve the treatment of Mentally Ill in Public Hospitals?

Re: In which way do you suggest,Sane could help improve the treatment of Mentally Ill in Public Hospitals?

Thank you @Ellie.

It is really activism towards improvement of the MH system.. through me telling my stories that helps give my life meaning .. beyond kids.

Rights conversations can be hugely triggering for me as they are part of what caused me to trust and marry my husband... but were not applicable to me in that marriage ...I am beginning to sort out what belonged to his issues and what still is relevant to me and the wider society.

my arts practise .. just keeps me alive for the bigger issues ....

i am a SANE community member for the long haul ..its in my home town ... not just a virtual reality existence.

In response to: In which way do you suggest,Sane could help improve the treatment of Mentally Ill in Public Hospitals?

Re: In which way do you suggest,Sane could help improve the treatment of Mentally Ill in Public Hospitals?

Ellie, if you are ok with being treated like this that's fine. I personally don't like being held captive against my will nor do think the state has a right to punish me if i haven't broken the law but that's just my feelings on the issue.

I would add that i think the whole approach to mental illness is wrong. Early intervention should consist of lots of talking therapy and 'TLC'; medication should be a secondary option. People with mental illnesses should not be forced to do anything anymore than any other member of society with a health problem and/or disability. There is actually a lot of research which shows that forced healthcare is no better than voluntary healthcare, excepting of course, in the instance where a parent is not adequately caring for the health of a child. I think iceland leads the way on early intervention at this pont in history. The sooner mental healh care is voluntary the sooner it will actually start ot help people. Open wards should be the only kind of mental health wards that there are and, obviously, barbaric practices like seclusion and restraints should be completely banned. Treatment in the community should be the norm, and open wards the other option.

In response to: In which way do you suggest,Sane could help improve the treatment of Mentally Ill in Public Hospitals?

Re: In which way do you suggest,Sane could help improve the treatment of Mentally Ill in Public Hospitals?

Appleblossom, I am very, very sorry to hear about your brother and your disadvantaged background. I hope you get the help you need and if i can help in any way I will be happy to. Let me know if you need any help (i can be quite good for advice, although that is obviously up to you to decide) and you can get hold of me through the SANE moderators. There is a way through any problem - counselling can be quite good, and a faith in the divine will get you through a heck of a lot, if by the skin of your teeth sometimes. i am happy to help if i can. i have had a lot more privilege than most people with mental illnesses and am ageing and in a position to help - i think (hope) that my advice is usually quite good. Take care x

In response to: In which way do you suggest,Sane could help improve the treatment of Mentally Ill in Public Hospitals?

Re: In which way do you suggest,Sane could help improve the treatment of Mentally Ill in Public Hospitals?

Can you pull back on work to recover and is there some alternative to self-harm - maybe writing your stuff out or stabbing balloons on which you have drawn the faces of those who have done you wrong? There must be some healthy alternative to self-harm - writing hate letters to the people who abused you and then not posting them?

In response to: Re: In which way do you suggest,Sane could help improve the treatment of Mentally Ill in Public Hospitals?

Re: In which way do you suggest,Sane could help improve the treatment of Mentally Ill in Public Hospitals?

Hi @Terry

I think what @Ellie is suggesting is that she didn't feel a sense of being held captive.

To everyone - as a reminder

We each have our own experiences and opinions, and in @CherryBomb 's words, 'please be mindful of suggesting that someone's opinion or experience is wrong or invalid if they don't share a similar perspective with you.'

Open and respectful debate is good, and part of that is willing to listen and acknowledge others' experiences - and not treat opinions as not valid.

@Terry SANE Forums are anonymous, so we don't pass on members' details to each other. There are other discussions around the Forums where you can share advice with others, if you're interested in doing so 🙂

In response to: In which way do you suggest,Sane could help improve the treatment of Mentally Ill in Public Hospitals?

Re: In which way do you suggest,Sane could help improve the treatment of Mentally Ill in Public Hospitals?

Thanks for sharing your story Ellie.

Im really glad that your experience with mental health units and their staff have for the most part been positive.

It does vary from state to state and from hospital to hospital.

It might be a Victorian thing as you mentioned because there has been recently some change to the Victorian system due to public attention raised by media of deaths that happened in Victorias mental wards and other issues.

While you may have felt being put in "the quiet area" benefited you,i can also see how other people would find this infantalizing and all effort should be made to stamp out any "infantalizing perceptions" of people with mental illness as obviously cancer patients-for example-are not treated this way.

In my view,there should nationwide be instilled seperate psychiatric wards for males and seperate wards for females because women need be able to feel safe there and not receive the experience that you or other women have received from other male patients.

Generally speaking,theres no doubt that working as a mental health nurse would come with some large challenges.

However some people do not have the demeanor for this sort of job and staff that are aggressive,disrespectful,and resistant to change should be fired.In the same way that we wouldn't want/allow pedophiles to work as staff in daycare centres,we shouldn't allow staff who are detrimental to patients mental health and self-worth etc to work in Psychiatric wards.

There needs to be a Government overhaul of the hiring procedure and character requirements for this job and incentives to encourage kind,caring people to apply for these roles.

I think should be also be changed:

1.Staff training to recognise that patients are different and should be treated as individuals.

Eg:a patient with Borderline Personality disorder might find being taken to a "quiet area" as being helpful but a patient/s with Depression or Schizoaffective(eg) might find it infantalizing or undignified.

2.Much greater focus needs to be put on helping staff workers to manage their own emotions,plus how to react with compassion/empathy,how to not come from fear and how to deesculate potentially violent sitations with confidence and without aggression.

In response to: Re: In which way do you suggest,Sane could help improve the treatment of Mentally Ill in Public Hospitals?

Re: In which way do you suggest,Sane could help improve the treatment of Mentally Ill in Public Hospitals?

Terry, I don't know if it's a case of feeling fine with being treated like that in a MH unit. I think it's more about my illness/disorder. I have borderline personality disorder and I'm working as hard as I can to do something about it, to the point whereby I've just relocated to a whole different city in order to get the help I need.

People with BPD are often stigmatised by the general population and the health care community. We're seen as "attention seekers" and "drama queens" because of our actions. I attend a self help group for those suffering borderline personality disorder in Melbourne and it's really opened my eyes to what happened to me as a child. One thing that was explained and makes sense is that we don't mind being "looked after" in a MH setting because we crave the love, care and attention we never got as children. My parents were invalidating and I suffered four years of hell in the form of physical violence during my school years by people (teachers) who were supposed to be looking after us. If you take that into account, then perhaps we're looking at being "locked up" from two entirely different positions. When I'm in the unit, my inner child is being cared for, even when I'm naughty. It probably sounds weird, but when in care I feel a certain safety and security I never felt as a child. It took me some time to get my head around that, but it does make sense. From the perspective of someone, say, suffering paranoid schizophrenia, the MH unit would look like hell on earth, and I'm not for a second suggesting that you're suffering from schizophrenia.

I don't know. Maybe something to consider??

Ellie.

In response to: Re: In which way do you suggest,Sane could help improve the treatment of Mentally Ill in Public Hospitals?

Re: In which way do you suggest,Sane could help improve the treatment of Mentally Ill in Public Hospitals?

Thank you, Nik Nik. I don't mean to be rude but everything I here write is backed up by credible research. Mental health units are very uncomfortable environments with the risk of severe abuse and violence hanging over the captives. And, again, I don't mean to be rude, but people in mental health units are most definitely being held captive, whether they like it or not.

There are experts being quoted in the newspapers quite regularly who say that the mental health system does more harm than good (based on research, of course) and that these systems are abusive and make things worse for people with mental illnesses. it is probably a very sad fact that people who have already suffered far too much abuse in life accept the abuses of the mental health system without question, and I am very, very sorry to know that.

In response to: Re: In which way do you suggest,Sane could help improve the treatment of Mentally Ill in Public Hospitals?

Re: In which way do you suggest,Sane could help improve the treatment of Mentally Ill in Public Hospitals?

Ellie, keep your faith in the divine. I was prayed over recently by a christian friend and my BPD is, it seems, cured. Keep on at it and eventually things will get better. I find the company of other patients is the only good and healing thing about being in a psychiatric ward and that's only in sub-acute. Acute wards are, quite simply, hell. Good luck to you for the future.

Nik, Nik, can you direct me to a place on the site where people can exchange contact details if they wish to support each other by email please? Thank you.

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