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What to do when something is really wrong, and you cant get help

What to do when something is really wrong, and you cant get help

I find it hard to cope with all the slogans and advice about getting help, but even when I recognise something is majorly wrong and i am not coping, I seem to be the one that slips through all the gaps in the system and I dont know where to go and I seem to be getting ping ponged backward and forward and going around in circles.

I have been so ill from anorexia and really physically unwell and majorly depressed and unsafe, and everywhere i go I am told I am too ill from anorexia to get help and no one wants to take on the responsibility of anorexia.

Everyone says I need to be in hospital but the wait lists for private hospitals and the exclusion criterias means I cant access care when I need it, and the local public hospitals just say they dont treat eds and they wont/cant do any proper ax or referral process.



People talk about early intervention but what about when you cant get treatment and just get sicker and sicker, and are effectively left at home on your own getting sicker and left to self destruct.

If people are ready to access treatment it would be nice if there was actually treatment available. When health professionals and services refuse to offer treatment when it is needed people just get sicker and sicker with more and more complications.

Everyone knows the death rate with anorexia is the highest of all mental illness, yet it is impossible to people with a severe and enduring eating disorder to access treatment.

23 replies

11 - 20 of 23

In response to: What to do when something is really wrong, and you cant get help

Re: What to do when something is really wrong, and you cant get help

Isn't it ironic when you can't get treatment because you're too ill?? *doe eyes*

In response to: Re: What to do when something is really wrong, and you cant get help

Re: What to do when something is really wrong, and you cant get help

Yep - crazy.
I have tried to had private hospital admissions and I got told I am "far too ill to come to hospital".
I said how can someone be too ill to be admitted, surely that meant I needed to be admitted.
So many people who need the most help falling through the gaps in the system and being left with nothing.

In response to: Re: What to do when something is really wrong, and you cant get help

Re: What to do when something is really wrong, and you cant get help

It seems a breach of human rights to not be able to access services because you're too ill...have you tried using an advocate? VMIAC (Victorian mental illness awareness council) has advocates.. You can contact VMIAC at www.vmiac.org.au or contact the mental health complaints commissioner on http://www.mhcc.vic.gov.au/. If you are outside Victoria, Google mental health complaints commissioner in your state, or contact your local or federal member of parliament...

In response to: Re: What to do when something is really wrong, and you cant get help

Re: What to do when something is really wrong, and you cant get help

No advocates in nsw, but I have the name of the chief psychiatrist in nsw so will write when I get a chance.
I have written to my local mp and jillian skinner.

In response to: Re: What to do when something is really wrong, and you cant get help

Re: What to do when something is really wrong, and you cant get help

Hi Pipkin,

You might want to try the Mental Health Advocacy Serive in Burwaood, Sydney (they are a part of legal aid and I believe they can offer support for this type of issue) - Ph: 02 97476155, or Head Office in Sydney Ph: 02 92195000

Hobbit

In response to: What to do when something is really wrong, and you cant get help

Re: What to do when something is really wrong, and you cant get help

Pipkin

I can "hear" your frustration.

I too hear all the slogans about help being available but my lived experience is to the contrary.

I am desperate for proper help (i.e. not a one-off consulation) but help is nowhere to be found.

As for the often given advice of just turning up at Emergency, I find this so frustrating I could scream. It is such ridiculous advice that provides the advice givers with an "out" from saying that the truth is that for some of us, there is no help available.

I cried when I read what you said about not be able to get help and being left at home, alone, to self destruct. That too is me.

Maybe if you and I can speak up enough sooner or later someone might listen.

Please be kind to yourself.

In response to: Re: What to do when something is really wrong, and you cant get help

Re: What to do when something is really wrong, and you cant get help

Thank you.
The links are to a course regarding disordered eating.

In response to: Re: What to do when something is really wrong, and you cant get help

Re: What to do when something is really wrong, and you cant get help

Hello Pipkin.

Wondering whether you received a reply from Gillian Skinner and also whether you'd be prepared to share the name of the Chief Psychiatrist?

In response to: What to do when something is really wrong, and you cant get help

Re: What to do when something is really wrong, and you cant get help

Hi Maude,

I thought Pipkins issues involved disordered eating,hence the links.
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