Ok, this is going to be a rant, so please be patient with me :)
I am a 'mental health consumer' - I have a diagnosis including anorexia and depression - and I've just spent the last several months in a private (ACC-funded) psych hospital down in Dunedin. I'm back home in Wellington now, and since I left without the good graces of the hospital (read: I freaked and bolted) I wasn't hooked up with the mental health services in Wellington so I'm only starting to do that now, a couple of months after I got back.
Anyway I went to see my case worker from the outpatients service at the hospital and we sat there, being awkward... I don't think either of us quite knew why we were there, other than my therapist made us. He was basically asking "what do you want?" and I was saying "Well, I want help with money, with working out student things for next year given that there's no way I can do a full course load, help with dealing the government agencies that do these things and with navigating their baffling rules and forms and loopholes and technicalities. I want one of those scholarships for people who need to rebuild their lives so that I don't have to turn to prostitution to get an education! At the very least I want to know who to talk to in order to find out who to talk to in order to get some information!"
They said: "Have you talked to WINZ? Try asking them."
Then they said: "We could get you in touch with an occupational therapist." I must have looked somewhat blank because they said "It can help with basic living skills and so forth." ... long silence... "for example *cough* if you were bad at shopping the OT could help with that..."
I agreed to see the OT in January. I think it's because a)my brain was still frozen after the WINZ advice and b)I think that means I change caseworkers, which will probably be a relief to us both.
The worst moment came when he asked me in an offhand tone how "things are" for me at the moment. I started crying and saying that I had no money and was really depressed and was finding it really hard to eat anything, but at the same time I'm desperate not to drop back the hard-won gains I made down South, I don't want to go back there but it's just so hard looking like this... and he said:
"Yes, I noticed you're not as skinny as you were before."
This man is a *trained mental health worker*. My file is right there in front of him with 'anorexia' written in it.
I desperately wanted to slap him but instead I sniffled slightly and agreed with everything he said, hating myself for doing it but just wanting the whole interview to end so I could sneak my fat self away into a corner and never see human faces again...
Well that's a little (lot) melodramatic but you gotta admit, the guy ain't gonna win 'Sensitive Empathetic Man of the Year Award'. :)
yeesh! sounds like he needs to be trained *again*! eejit!
kia kaha.
Posted by: iona at December 23, 2003 10:04 AMHey man, it's your blog, rant your heart out.
That kind of thing in organisations makes me angry. Those people are supposed to be there to help but they can be so incompetent.
I went for a job interview at Wellington Eating Disorder Support Services about four years ago. I found the six(!) women that interviewed me were extremely vague, both in their overall impression on me, and about what their work was, and why they were doing it. I couldn't imagine them running a service like that, although they would probably make very good gypsy fortune tellers...
Therapy careers seem to attract many people who have their heads in the clouds. But there are also some really good people too. The magic words, "I would like a different therapist/case officer please", are very helpful things.
Keep at it. Can't rain all the time.
Posted by: suraya at December 23, 2003 10:18 AMI can't believe how stupid that man is! I think you are beautiful all the time.
:)
Posted by: Jenni at December 23, 2003 03:20 PMGrrrr! Don't get me started on how crap the mental health service is - that would be a ten page rant, which would be inappropriate for a comments section!
Definitely get a new case worker - there are some really good people working in that area, you just have to keep pushing until you find one of them.
Hang in there.
Posted by: Fi at December 23, 2003 04:23 PMThanks
Posted by: Online Home Loans at November 19, 2005 07:34 PMI think we need to a list of consumer, family, and advocacy organizations that provides comprehensive information about mental health resources.
Posted by: Andrew Spark at February 14, 2006 04:05 PM