"My child's mental health journey"

Disgusted. Frustrated. Saddened. 

We hear so much about youth suicide and especially indigenous youth suicide. 

My child has struggled for a few years now. Being a teenager, they are not always able to share their feelings or been able to find someone who is skilled enough to get their to share and then to help them. 

Every time they have gotten to point of asking for help and actively seeking it, the system has let them down. 

I have rang every service and phone line trying to get advice on how best to support my child. Told unless they hurt themselves, others or police called I cannot have them committed. After the shooting of an indigenous woman by police no way was I risking my child to them! 

Finally my child found a Dr who is patient, caring, and is trying to get my child the professional help they need. (Our past is very violent, disrupted, and isolated) my child has anxiety, panic attacks, hardly leaves house, some weeks doesn’t eat or shower. They have been seeing Dr daily for weeks. They got in to see a psych. 2 appointments with one, another 2 at mental health at the hospital. Put in referral for Step Up Step Down program but told they are too unwell. I understand the psych told my child they are not unwell at all and just deal with drug issues at rehab?!

2nd appointment, I understand Telehealth psych, said similar thing. Recently, my child hit their biggest crisis, I’ve never seen them so bad before. Begging for help, self-destructive and just crazy. Dr called police to get my child to hospital.

They hate hospital and the thought of being locked up and restrained. Yet their fought their fear and hopped in back of police van. At the hospital not allowed out of box on van as no beds available, waited for nurse to bring something to calm them. My child having panic attack about not being allowed out and locked in small space. Lost it and kicked and punched and threw themselves around in the box. When my child calmed a bit, police handcuffed them and allowed door to be open.

We waited until a Dr came and spoke to my child. Their Dr was there to give history. Beds full. Up to 4 hour wait. I requested they fly my child to psych ward in Perth if they full. Can’t without an assessment. My child asked for help. Promised help. Left cuffed, on display at front of hospital between panic, raging, sobbing with everyone looking at them thinking they a criminal! They just wanted help. They saying repeatedly they hadn’t done anything wrong and to just let them sit in ED or out of cuffs and the van.

My child was promised they'd get help. Mental health nurse came said my child just had bad behaviour and needed to be accountable, contrary to what my child's Dr and I telling them, they told them. I felt the nurse was quite condescending to me when I said that’s not what it is.  I live with my child. I’m here every day. I know when they are doing teenager stuff, trying to get their way, having a tantrum.

I have never seen my child like that before. They were scared, angry, broken, suicidal, ranting, pacing, sweating, agitated and paranoid. When police arrived they panicked but with help they managed to calm themselves enough to go with them while I followed. 5 and a half hours they made to sit in box on police van, handcuffed, sobbing, begging for help. Another nurse assessed my child and said they ok to go home?! What the actual f’’k?! 

Do you know how hard and how much it took for them to get there???!!! 

Once again it seems the system let them down! 

Do you care to listen to our journey or my side of living with my child and knowing them? Do you want my child to hurt themselves?!  Do you want to hear the patient,  give them help when they begging for it?! They are a great young person with a big heart. Who used to laugh,  have fun and just be a kid/teenager. 

They begged for hours for help and you told my child to stop behaving badly and go home?! 

No medication, suicidal, more distraught than when they arrived?! I believe my child is going to end up dead and I feel this will be partly on you and the mental health system for not hearing their cry for help. This journey has me understanding why there are so many youth and adult suicides, because in my experience, individuals judge, assume, and follow a system that is ridiculously lacking. 

Thanks for shattering their hope, I believe they will not ask for help or attempt to get help again because of this experience.  

Yes my child is self-medicating with weed and prescription pills (though they hate not having control,) their weed use has steadily increased, their tolerance is high, the effects are less as their mental state plummets. No, they don’t help my child's moods or head like they want them to but they are just trying to numb the pain, quieten their mind, quell their anxiety and to get small amounts of sleep.  My child has admitted they needs rehab. Without dealing with the trauma that is the why, how can they successfully do this? My child is scared of themselves, doesn’t want to feel suicidal or the blind rage. Wants to stop overthinking, disassociation, rage, and yet got no professional support?!   

Have you once asked my child why they take the drugs? The help they have sought? Me to share what my child cannot? 

Their Dr gave my child's full history yesterday and was dismissed. They called police as last option,  still my child didn’t get help they desperately need. Got no support, no room, no kindness, or just given credit for the effort it took to get there! 

2 beds upgraded to 7. 

Suicide not a priority? 

My child didn’t choose the nightmare our lives were or the consequences of that nightmare. My child sat locked up, on display, out the front,  embarrassment added to their stresses while they begged for help!