Expert Panel On Better Access (To Psychologists) Parliament House 30th Jan

@WillyI do have the time and inclination. But psychiatrist insists that my advocacy emails are an OCD Compulsion. So, I've been told to reel it in

@DogMan79
I'm not allowed to give my opinion on this forum about what your psychiatrist tells you. As I am sure you are aware, psychiatrists are considered to be the all knowing, all wise high priests of mental health and to question them in any way is considered heresy.
What I think I can say is that one way or another we have all been silenced from speaking up about MH issues and problems for far too long and look at the mess we are now in.
We have all been trained like Pavlov's conditioned dogs to sit, lie down, and roll over on command. For me it is time to stop this nonsense, growl frequently and bite occasionally.
If you want to defy your psychiatrist and have a go at what appears to me to be a significant violation of human rights, I am happy to help you.

Regards

Willy (a psychiatric heretic)

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@Willy wrote:

Hi @chibam

Community vs Institutional mental health facilities.
For more than 200 years there have been experiments in alternative mental health treatments for those with serious (psychotic) mental health problems. These have been based on a humane caring model as opposed to a medicalised institutional model. Overall they have been surprisingly successful. They have however often been aggressively opposed by vested medical based interests. Despite opposition these small community MH facilities continue to pop up all over the world as a better more cost effective alternative to psychiatric hospitals. One case I read about recently was in Norway where an entrepreneurial guy "on a mission" with very limited personal resources managed to independently set up one of these facilities. "Look Ma! - No governments".

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See, this is usually where I always end up losing my sense of connection with movements/campaigns like this; when they start talking about "small community MH facilities" being a solution to the ills of the "big system, with it's big facilities" (paraphrasing).

The worst of what I went through happened in a small facility; to be specific, a small house in the middle of a residential neighborhood, that had been converted into a multi-therapist clinic.

The other common thread I encounter is talk about pushing "talk therapies" as an alternative to the more aggressive therapies such as drugs, restraints, electroshock, ect. By far, the worst harm done to me was done through "talk therapy", and neglect of pursuing real solutions.

I'm not denying or belittling the evils done in the big facilities, and/or by the harder treatments. But these turmoils are not my own person area of expertise, and so I don't believe I have anything really to contribute to such a movement.

Furthermore, it does not sit easy with me, watching a movement campaigning to extract patients of the "big facility system" out of their own nightmares, only to steer them into mine. When I try to speak out that small-time therapists are just as crooked and dammaging as the big facilities, my voice tends to get drowned out or ignored. I've seen little to no noteworthy interest in correcting the ills of the "small clinic system"; most of which are not down to individual crooked therapists, but appalling shortcomings in the overall doctrine of the system. And I struggle to wholeheartedly back a movement that aims to herd the poor suffering patients of the "big, aggressive-treatment system" out of one nightmare, just to dump them into another one.

The ills of the "small system" are real, significant, and desparately need to be addressed and remedied. Much of it would be a hell of a lot easier and cheaper then people ever care to acknowledge.

Since this is my own personal area of expertise, and (incase it wasn't obvious) the area of the mental health system I am most passionate about, this is really where I feel my energy is best spent.

@Willy I respectfully ask not to be tagged in these posts. I acknowledge your need to work through what you see from your own experience but that is not mine therefore I have no interest here. Good luck with your journey.

Hi @Willy ,

I’ve been holding off for a long time (too long), but I think now is the time…

Could you please so kindly stop tagging me into your posts? I find them very triggering and upsetting because I do not agree with much of what you share.

The MH system has done a world of good for me. They have helped me more than I could ever imagine. I know they are not perfect, but who is?

I want to use these forums as a means to interact with people to engender hope, share my experiences of success and to encourage others.

I really do not want to focus on the flaws of the system.

Im sorry you have not had pleasant experiences of the MH system (like many others), yet your experiences are not mine. Despite many not having been supported in the current system, there are also many who have been supported.

If you want to continue sharing your views, you are welcome to, but please stop tagging me. I ask that you’d respect this request.

BPDSurvivor

Tagging to let you know I do not agree with being tagged to the above posts.

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Oh, and yes, ‘talk therapies’ in the public mental health system saved my life. I had 18 months of the full MBT treatment. That’s what my condition needed .

I couldn’t be more satisfied with my life right now.