If Julian is out of bed by midday, it’s a minor miracle. A one-time medical student, his dream of working as a paediatrician has remained just that … a dream.
Julian won’t be up in time for the Mental Health Week morning tea so he’ll miss out on the lamingtons and Tim Tams. Even if he did see the balloons and posters in the day room, he’d probably struggle, as I do, to work out their link to mental illness.
And the reason for Julian’s unrealised ambition. One word. Schizophrenia. A term coined over 100 years agobut for which there is still no cure.
Mental Health Week is now into its twenty-seventh year. The week’s raison d’etre has a well-worn mantra;
*promote mental wellbeing
* increase knowledge of mental illness
*reduce stigma.
Mental Health Week posters usually ask the question; What do you know?The answer, for many people,still seems to be, not an awful lot. For example, when I was buying a car recently, the salesman, on hearing I was a psychiatric nurse, quipped I’d cop, “plenty of biffo, then”. His comment, more statement than query. He wasn’t interested in my opinion.
It doesn’t help either that in recent times there’s been an unfortunate distortion and exaggeration of the prevalence of serious mental illness in this country. And this distortion has been touted by some experts, who should know better. Some experts argue that as many as one in two or three of us will experience mental illness at some stage in our lives. How these estimates are arrived at is never made quite clear.
Treatment optionsremain stark. Fewer GPs are bulkbilling, thereby excluding many mentally ill people who simply cannot afford pay. So that burden falls to our already stretched public psychiatric system with all its limitations
Rather than talking up the incidence of mental illness in our society, we should take a hard look at the quality of life and lousy living conditions that many people already living with a serious mental illness are enduring.
Perhaps during this year’s Mental Health Week we should pay a visit to any ofthe inappropriately titled Supported Residential Servicesor SRSs. They’re not that hard to find. There’s typically a sign in the front yard advertising their “Excellence in care for Retirees,” or some such guff. Despite being subjected to local government regulations – hard-wired smoke detectors, water sprinklers and fire extinguishers in every corner, these Dickensian establishments are often little more than doss houses. Inhabitants are coughing up 85% or more of their pension in return for very ordinary tucker and shelter, and staff has little or no training.
It’s the same story in many rooming houses where there is even less supervision. Despite the best efforts of some registered Rooming House providers, standover tactics, antisocial behaviour, exploitation and wanton substance abuse often prevails. As a community nurse in my previous job, it was standard practise to conduct visits to some of the more notorious rooming homes in pairs due to safety concerns. Imagine then having to live in one of these places if you have a mental illness.
Seems it’s not enough that mentally ill people make up a significant percentage of our prison population but when they are housed in our community they are forced to endure substandard accommodation which is often inappropriate and unsafe for many people, especially women.
Across Australia, states and territories have failed to provide sufficient housing stock and affordable housing for our most socially disadvantaged, especially the mentally ill. Public housing stock has been in decline since the 1950s. In Victoria at present, there are an estimated 40,000 people on the wait list for public housing in this state. 10,000 are on the early housing or priority wait list. But less than a third can expect to be housed in any given year.
But whatever we do, let’s not exaggerate the number of mentally ill people.
As a relatively wealthy society, why don’t we simplycommitadequate resources to improve the lives of those who struggle with serious mental illness?
So as yet another Mental Health Week rolls around, the question isn’t what do we know, rather it’s what can we do.
We can write, email, and lobby our local members of parliament to adequately fund and build more appropriate accommodation for those among us, who through no fault of their own, live with serious mental illness. It won’t be glamorous work. It will take time but it’s certainly achievable.
If a carbon tax can get up, why not a mental health tax? Now there’s a thought that’s not so crazy. I think Julian would agree.
Mental Health Week runs from October 7 to 13.
• Flourish: Cure found for mental illness!… in an ideal world
Wouldn’t it be great that if the uncomfortable fact that ‘One in five Australians will experience a mental disorder in any 12-month period’, was no longer a truth, but an old statistic?
That may be some people’s hopes and dreams that are voiced at the Flourish Mental Health Action In Our Hands’ Q&A Forum:Mental health in an ideal world, being held as part of National Mental Health Weekon 9 October 2012 in the Hobart Town Hall from 12.30pm. The Q&A Forum is democracy in action – the public gets to ask the questions of people who have experienced mental illness, carers, and medical professionals (public and private).
Lucy Lester, a panellist at the Q&A event, knows only too well what it is like to have a mental illness and the daily stigma that is associated with the medical condition.Lucy stated “I kept a secret about hearing voices from the age of 3, and my recovery journey really only commenced with the honest disclosure and supportive treatmentat the age of 31”.
Lucy’s life has been much shaped by her experience living with mental illness. Lucy said “At the age of 12 I felt suicidally depressed, constantly thinking about how to end my life, and at age 16 I nearly succeeded by taking a massive overdose that left me in ICU. Follow up was a few sessions with a councillor and not much more. I feel proud to be on the Panel at the Flourish Q&A Event for Mental Health Week, as it will give a voice back to people with mental illness about their experiences, and ideas for a better mental health system in Tasmania into the future.”
Portraying at times a very different perspective to their patients, the Q&A Forum has panellists who are medical professionals (public and private) treating the condition and assisting people with mental illness on a path of recovery.
Dr Carey Denholm, another Q&A panellist, recentlynamed in the 2012Queen’s Birthday Honours,provides an international insight at the forum. His three stints in the Gaza Strip to work with disabled children and youth has influenced his responses to mental health.
Dr Carey Denholmis a psychologist in private practice at St Helens Private Hospital. He started his career as a primary teacher then teacher of the deaf. After graduate school in Canada he trained youth workers then returned to UTAS to teach educational psychology. He is the past Professor and Dean of Graduate Research and considers his three stints in the Gaza Strip to work with disabled children and youth as career highlights. Carey also served as the founder and director of the ABC Giving Tree Children’s Choir.
Both Lucy Lester and Dr Carey Denholm are available for interview at the event.
Flourish Q&A Forum Fact Sheet
• Flourish’s Q&A Forum: Mental health in an ideal world, as part of National Mental Health Weekon Tuesday 9th October 2012 in the Ballroom at the Hobart Town Hall from 12.30 – 2pm.
• Mental Health Week in 2012 will run from the 7-13 October. The theme for Mental Health Week 2012 is Celebrate, Connect, Grow. For more information: www.dhhs.tas.gov.au/mentalhealth/mental_health_week.
• The Q&A panel consists of Dr Cary Denholm (AM), former Professor and Dean at the University of Tasmania and a psychologist in private practice; Professor Mark Oakley-Browne, Statewide Clinical Director of Mental Health Services and Professor at the Discipline of Psychiatry, at the University of Tasmania; Dr Beth Mulligan, a GP working in youth health, Director of Clinical Training and GP Liaison Officer at the Launceston General Hospital as well Clinical teacher at the Launceston Clinical School at the University of Tasmania.
• Darren Jiggins and Lucy Lester are also on the panel and will contribute to the discussion from a ‘lived experience’ of mental illness. Both have come to terms with their illness and are passionate about advocating for the rights of those with a mental illness and working towards reducing stigma. The other panel member is also passionate about human rights for people with a mental illness. Elida Meadows is of southern Italian descent, is completing her PHD and works in the mental health area. She is both a carer and a consumer.
• All members of the public are invited to a free lunch of soup and sandwiches at 12.30pm with the Q&A forum commencing at 1.00pm.
• This forum is proudly supported by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Hobart City Council.
About Flourish:
• Flourish Mental Health Action In Our Hands Inc (Flourish) works with mental health consumers to ensure that their rights, responsibilities and opinions are respected by policy makers, service providers and the Tasmanian Community.
• Established as an independent not for profit community organisation in 2011, Flourish believes all Tasmanians with a lived experience of mental illness deserve to have a voice, and will assist them to develop the capacity to self-advocate, as well as influencing policy makers on their behalf. We will work with other services, service providers and the community to improve the lives of people with mental ill health.
• For more information on Flourish please visit the Flourish website at http://flourishtas.org.au.
• Flourish is funded by the Department Of Health and Human Services.
• Andrew Wilkie: Mental Health Crisis
The Independent Member for Denison, Andrew Wilkie, has called on the State Government to reverse the budget cuts that have left the Tasmanian mental health system at the “point of implosion’’.
Mr Wilkie’s call follows a silent vigil of mental health workers outside of the Executive Building in Hobart to highlight the devastating impact of cuts to frontline services on patient care and outcomes.
“There is a mental illness epidemic in Australia and Tasmania is not being spared,’’ Mr Wilkie said.
“This is the time to be boosting funding, not cutting it, but here we have the Sate Government indeed cutting positions and reducing services in a dreadful abandonment of its responsibilities.
“At least one in five Tasmanians will suffer an episode of mental illness this year but still the State Government has cut more than 40 full-time mental health positions. These workers must be reinstated and fast, which I’m sure they would be if any members of the State Government were relying on their help.’’
Unions report 42.5 frontline mental health positions have been lost due to last year’s budget cuts, including 18 in the South.
This has led to fewer patients being seen in a timely manner and an increase in hospital admissions and length of stay and increased workloads for staff.
The $325m health rescue package Mr Wilkie secured recently for Tasmania contained $15.4m for mental health.
“But there is no sign the State Government is directing any of that towards frontline services or filling any of the 42.5 vacant positions,’’ Mr Wilkie said.
