TW: Got EMS called on me for talking about a past s***ide attempt. How am I meant to talk about this?

Hi @Jlol, Thank you for sharing your experience. I can hear how distressing and frustrating this has been for you, especially feeling embarrassed and unsure about what you can safely talk about in future sessions.

In most mental health settings, it’s important to be able to speak openly about suicidal thoughts and experiences, including past attempts, as clinicians may need that information to support your wellbeing and assess risk appropriately. It’s understandable that this experience has left you feeling uncertain about that.

Regarding your concerns about what happened with the psychologist, you may wish to raise a complaint if you feel the response was inappropriate. In Australia, this can be done through AHPRA (Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency) or the relevant health complaints body in your state or territory: https://www.ahpra.gov.au/Notifications/Concerned-about-a-health-practitioner.aspx

I’m really sorry this experience has left you feeling shaken and unsure about engaging with support. Thank you again for sharing it here 🌻

Hey @Jlol, thank you for sharing your experience with the psychologist recently with the community.

I just want to echo @Nala2022 words and how challenging this interaction with the psychologist and EMS must have been. Our feelings and emotions are already at a heightened state in my experience after an uncompleted suicide and having to deal with the EMS in the way that you describe sounds like it would have been uncomfortable for me too and anyone I would expect.

I hope the community has some insights to share with you as I'm sure this would be an interesting discussion for many your peers.

I also found this page on the internet with more information about making complaints about mental health service providers and thought I would share it with you: https://www.health.vic.gov.au/mental-health-and-wellbeing-act-handbook/safeguards-protection-of-rights-complaints/complaints

I am glad you have had the opportunity to share this with the community and I encourage you to continue to have this conversation with your peers.

Take care

RiverSeal

Thanks @RiverSeal

With complaints it is very hard and I want to avoid it if possible.

This is why:

I did call up the place and speak to a team leader there. I explained that whilst I understood it was reasonable for them to call EMS if somone was saying they were going to s***ide in the immediate future or present, I didnt understand why they would call EMS for a s***ide attempt that had happened in the past. She said that they consider the last few days to be in the "present".

I replied saying that it didn't make sense and that the universal agreed term of "present" would be something like "the period of time occurring right now" (eg and for the record: Miriam-Webster's definition: "now existing". Oxford: "the period of time now". Cambridge: "the period of time that is happening now, not the past or the future"). I said I felt it was pretty silly to argue semantics but she insisted. I asked how long her understanding of "present" stretched for and she said "maybe months". I asked that if you talked to them about a s***ide attempt that occured 2 months ago could they call EMS on you? She said yes.

This is what I mean. Talking to psychologists often feels like talking to lawyers. They're very, very good with words and will massage the definitions of words and phrases to suit their desired outcomes. And any complaint you make goes up against teams of them who have each others backs. And at the end of the day, if you go to a thrid party arbiter, they will just cherry-pick the content of the conversations you've had to make you look like you were the one who "misunderstood" the situation.

It's never talked about, but psychologists have this scary power to take away our freedom. Sometimes, yes, this is absolutely justified. But when it's not it's impossible to express your concerns and have them taken seriously, let alone get any recourse or closure. This is made worse in that the bodies you are meant to express your concerns to just don't want to deal with this "icky" mental health problem. We, as a society, are so willing to defer anything to do with mental health to the experts we never stop to examine whether some of these experts are behaving inappropriately.

I mean, just to illustrate my point and not to conflate my experiences with something far more serious, but how long did we as a society trust these experts when they all said LGBT people were mentally unwell?

@Jlol, sometimes it seems to be about the risk to the organization rather than the client.

You can chat with a volunteer lived experience peer via Roses in the Ocean Peer Care Warmline https://rosesintheocean.com.au/peer-care-companion-warmline/

They have a 000 policy of not calling 000 unless the person is terminating the phone call and saying they are going to take their life now. https://rosesintheocean.com.au/our-000-position/