A midnight chat on the radio

Well, for some reason I couldn't go to sleep tonight. As I laid in bed I listened to the ABC radio as usual with Tony Delroy. Tonights topic was mental health and psychiatric issues. So many people were ringing in and talking of how they had struggled to get family members assessed and admitted, and so many of them had been told to go away, one man was even admitted himself after calling the crisis team to assess his psycho-depressive mother because the staff thought that he was the delusional one, not his mother - purely because background checks weren't done. Another man was charged with assult or whatever after he had called the police when his son was trying to murder him during the night, all because his son had injured himself when he went to get another knife to stab his father.

So I rung. I had to say my bit. I talked about the issues of being re-admitted after being discharged, how your story has to be retold for every staff member you come across, how even when you are reentering the system through the same emergency ward as before, your history is not looked at - that you are assessed as you are at that time. And then, after telling your story to the triage nurse, the case worker who comes to see you, the doctor on duty who comes to do your obs and then the psyc registrar, you are then assessed, told to wait until there is a bed available and if one is not available you are told to go home and seek help via that route.

No matter what area you turn to, if humans are involved, there are going to be mistakes, problems and is never going to be fail-proof. So what needs to happen to fix what is there already?? I dunno! Lots....start with how you are admitted for a start - having to go through the emergency department is a joke! When I was suicidal and had to wait in the waiting room for a while (until a waiting room became available) was so horrible. I could have easily walked out without anyone noticing and even though its not the case, you feel like you have 'Im suicidal / Im a mental case' written all over your face, you are socially phobic, you go from heights of hyper to the lows of hypo where you are back to your suicidal state. 

There are never enough beds available. There will never be enough beds available. But one thing that needs to happen is those patients who are STILL in mental wards who are not being discharged because family will not take responsibility for them are clogging the system. Where have all those support places gone for these people - who are over 18 and need consistent monitoring because of their mental health issues???? In the Shoalhaven there is NO specific mental health ward WHATSOEVER! NONE!!!! And how many people live in the Shoalhaven?? 83,000 and that was 10 years ago. The closest mental health wards are in Wollongong - Shellharbour which has 3 (Mirrabook, Eloura East and Eloura West) and then Wollongong Hospital. Each have from what I can assume is approx 20 beds each....so say that they do have 20 beds each...thats a total of 80 beds to cover the 83,000 people in the shoalhaven and the 293,000 in the Illawarra. So add that up.... 376,000 and 80 beds = 4700 people PER BED!!!!! 

A Mental Health Clinical Nurse Consultant is available for mental health Assessments during business hours at the Shoalhaven Hospital Emergency Department. But what happens if you go in after hours?? YOU HAVE NOONE...they may as well say to you 'oh how inappropriate of you to become suicidal at such an hour'. Go Figure!!
These are excerps taken from the Illawarra Mental Health Forum:

Psychiatrists –The Illawarra and Shoalhaven have a serious shortage of
psychiatrists similar to the rest of regional Australia.
 
Hospitals – There are lengthy waiting times in Emergency Departments,
inconsistency in care, and a lack of follow-up care when people are discharged.
 
Community Mental Health Team – This crisis service operates only in weekday
business hours. After hours people use Emergency hospital services or in crises
have the intervention of police. 

There is a lack of support services and infrastructure for people
living in the community with mental health issues. Carers report that their voice is not heard in designing treatment nor in improving the mental health care system. Many people with mental illness and their carers are simply falling through the system, the most vulnerable ending up in jail or living on the streets and too often the police are involved in the management of mental health care issues.

In saying all this though, the Shoalhaven is going to be one of the recipients of a new Headspace Centre which provide mental health and wellbeing support, information and services to young people and their families. The centres are able to help with general health, mental health, drug and alcohol use, education and employment. 


So what can we do in the meantime?? Support those out there that you know have a mental illness, if you know someone who you THINK may be in this category - talk to someone at the local community health centre. And IF you need to, call the police - they can take that person to emergency and the process can happen a lot quicker than it can if you 'walk in'.


Recognise the signs of someone who is not taking medication, or who is having a relapse.


And in saying this - we also cannot be responsible for someone elses decisions - something I was told by a psychiatrist.


nighty nighty!!