Damien2024New Contributor
Carer burnout
Hi. Im new here. My story started 12 years ago when I began caring for a friend that has MA psychosis syndrome. He was disowned by his family and I took him in, gave him a home, found him work and became his mental health carer. Its a long story but whats happening now is he has progressed from psychosis every few months to constant psychosis. His psychosis consists of vivid delusions, paranoia, violent outbursts, lack of self care, social isolation. His psychiatrist is useless, offering no helpful input. There are new generation antipsychotics available but the psychiatrist isnt interested. Similarly with his psychologist that seems to have given up. He has two GPs, both are out of their depth and just write him medical certs for centrelink. I was senior lecturer in mental health at a local uni, intensive care paramedic and RN so mental health issues are not new to me. Now Im actually living what I teach my students. To make it worse, a centrelink social worker phoned me ( I was getting the carer allowance but cancelled it as it was too much hassle), presumably to check on whether I still met the criteria. I do...average of 54hours a week, every day care,etc. I told her I wasnt coping and the person I cared for was constantly psychotic and his health care team was at a loss to know what to do next. The social workers final words were " so you clearly are not meeting the expectations of a carer". I consider that unprofessional behavior from a social worker. She could have said something like ...are you managing OK or have you talked about this with any of the following organizations...
That pushed me over the edge. I became more depressed, frustrated, suicidal. No one seems to care about the carer and more importantly about the person I care for. I have no idea what to do next.
