Comments on the Qld Mental Health System
I wrote this article at the beginning of 1997, not long after we were diagnosed with DID. Since that time, we have been working with a supportive therapist, who has extensive knowledge of dissociative experiences. We have also found a supportive “virtual community”, which has helped us all enormously to understand and accept our multiplicity. However, the trauma of the experiences described here are still valid, and I believe that they need to be heard. If you can relate to what I describe here, please feel free to email me - Elaine of LS
Introduction
Trauma is one of the leading factors in the cause of mental illness. Studies have shown that between 60 and 70% of patients in mental health facilities suffered abuse as children.
Adult traumatic experiences, such as the death of a family member, witnessing or being involved in an accident, or being a victim of a physical assualt, are also common causes of certain mental illnesses.
However, there is another trauma which is not often discussed - the trauma that many people experience as a result of entering the mental health system.
It is about ten years since the Townsville Ward 10B scandal first began receiving media attention. In that time, the attitudes, if not the practices, of many mental health professionals have remained virtually unchanged.
Based in my own experiences over the past two years, I believe there are a number of areas where the system not only fails to support and strengthen mentally ill people, but disempowers them and erodes their sense of self-worth and future. My examples are the process of diagnosis, the lack of support in management of my symptoms, and the inpatient treatment in most psychiatric wards.
These examples do not focus on flagrant abuses of power, such as physical or sexual assualt. Rather, they focus on my experience as a victim of small and subtle violations that have undermined my intrinsic value as a human being.
Rather than moving towards healing, or developing better coping strategies to deal with the stresses and traumas of life, I have found myself feeling increasingly trapped by and dependant on treatments which I do not fully understand, and which have had limited benefits.
My words come from the frustration and pain I have felt in the past two years, as I have desperately sought help, and received only stigma and suffering. My hope is that writing this will help me to take control of both my treatment and my future, and contribute to making the mental health system more open and supportive for other patients.
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