"Poor treatment for mental health in ED"

Late last year, I was accepted into NEAMI Step Up Step Down Program in Joondalup. It did not go well and I was exited from the program 2 weeks early. This lead to serious suicidal thoughts, I wasn’t safe. The staff from NEAMI took me to Joondalup Hospital. 

One of the NEAMI nurses spoke to the triage nurse in private. I was triaged very quickly and taken through to the MH unit and put on suicide watch for 72 hours. They had also flagged me as having violent outbursts and that I was homeless. Information I believe they must have been given by the NEAMI nurse. I did not have to wait my turn for triage. In my opinion, it seemed like patients coming from NEAMI was a common occurrence. 

When I saw the doctor I told them that I needed to be reviewed as I felt I was having serious effects from the medication I was put on a few months prior. I felt that something was very wrong. Prior to being put on the medication, I had major depression. Since then, I was having such severe behaviour I was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). I was told I needed to see a psychologist and hospital admission wasn’t what I needed. I told them if I left I was going to kill myself.

I felt the nurses treated me terribly. For those 72 hours, you sit on a bed. I felt I had no support. Nothing. I saw the social worker once. I believe it was completely unhelpful. I had a friend who would take me in so I wasn’t going to be on the street. I feel as though they thought I just wanted a bed. I was extremely scared and having severe anxiety about going into crisis accommodation. It’s not that I just didn’t want to, I knew I wouldn’t cope. 

When I left I was in such a state. I felt that the community mental health service that I was with was offering no support, I felt NEAMI made me worse and the hospital turned me away. I believe I had been labelled as non-compliant, using threats of harm as a way to get my own way and being homeless.

What I was, was defeated. I recorded a video to my child saying their parent can’t be fixed. I felt my child would have a hard life if I lived or died and it didn’t matter anymore. I took 40 tablets. I had planned to take more after I got my belongings from NEAMI. I was going to drive to the lake but it affected me quicker than I thought and I got light-headed and disoriented. I hadn’t eaten anything in 3 days. NEAMI staff called an ambulance that took me back to Joondalup. They kept me for 24 hours till I was medically cleared and discharged again. 

I don’t think they believed I took an overdose. I was only given fluids and sodium I think. No charcoal or stomach pump. When I asked the nurse for nausea medication, they didn’t get it for me. An hour passed and I started violently vomiting. Later they said it had only been 15 mins. I believe it wasn’t. The same nurse also said to me that I took an overdose, tried to kill myself, there are consequences to that and now I must suffer them. They told me not to ask them for anything else. There was a nurse who seemed sympathetic to me but I think they were a temp or less senior and couldn’t do anything. I felt everyone one else treated me awfully.

I have since managed to get help in my local area. My medication was having an adverse effect. Off it for 6 weeks without a single outburst. I’m in the Intensive Day Therapy Unit and they want to review my diagnosis as they believe the medication and the intense stress was enough to cause my behaviour alone.

As well as conflicting reports from all the treatment I had received since I was originally put on the medication, I told my new treating team that I felt like there must be “labels” that are effecting how I’m viewed. They talked me through those things, heard my side, my concerns and didn’t dismiss me. The simple fact is I am doing so much better now, which I believe goes to show that I wasn’t having BPD tantrums and that I had every right to be yelling and screaming for help. In my opinion, those services made me worse. Now I have been heard, I am being treated correctly and I am on a solid path to recovery. 

It was so traumatic. I feel NEAMI’s influence and the treatment I received by staff was appalling and could have had a very severe outcome.