"Mental health care experience"

I’ve been in and out of hospital trying to get help since earlier this year. In the start, they were great. But eventually went down hill from there.

I came into the ED in joondalup recently with concerns for myself. I was scared I was going to hurt myself again, and being told before acting on my decisions, I need to head to ED. I did that, and unfortunately I recall I was called a liar and told that I wasn’t underweight enough to have an eating disorder, even though I’d have been diagnosed. They then told me there was nothing they could do for me and told me to ‘stay safe’.

I came back in a couple days later, still feeling ill. Finally they gave me a bed. I was then woken up late at night where they finally told me the psych was ready for me. The psych was actually great this time though so was happy with them. The next day my parent was visiting, and I was rudely disrupted by the psychiatrist, and three students, no warning. The psych was, I felt, very blunt, not encouraging, and just made me feel uncomfortable. I recall they asked me ‘why are you crying?’ are you serious! I believe that is something a psych should never say to a mental health patient.

I just was fed up with the way I was been treated and I just couldn’t be bothered to try anymore, so I just said to them yep I’m all good to go home, I felt they practically just kicked me out because apparently the ‘ED has more severe mental health patients’. I left feeling so invalidated and 100 worse then before. I was sure that I wouldn’t be able to cope anymore because not even the professionals couldn’t  help.

Unfortunately I ended back in the ED after an attempt. There is no way I should ever have to get to this point for the mental health workers to take me seriously. The lady in triage was lovely. I told her about my experience and she was so so so comforting and was making sure that I was okay. It was great to be reassured by her as I was already scared of presenting there, keep in mind she’s just a nurse and isn’t trained as a psychologist/ psychiatrist and in my opinion she’s already done a 100x better job.

I sat in the ED for an hour, then was taken into the emergency department unit where I was for a few days. Throughout those days the nurses involved in my care were great, then we moved to extended emergency care unit. Was treated great and was checked on every 10 minutes. Was told I was seeing a psych soon, until I realised who the psych was then reported that I did not feel comfortable talking to them. The nurse was lovely and passed the message on. Was then moved to MHOA and waited to be evaluated by a different psych.

I’d had this one before earlier in the year, coming in from my first admission. They have always been calm, reassuring, kindly spoken and I always feel I can walk out of the hospital with some kind of hope. This time unfortunately I was hoping for a more long term stay (moving to the unit) as I was very ill and unable to even do my normal daily activities. Unfortunately was sent home but I was also happy to go home as I felt more confident that I was going to be okay. In some ways it has not been a great experience.

I believe when we feel suicidal, manic etc. we should not be put down or shamed. It is real feelings and unfortunately is seemingly very common these days. I think the system could 100% be improved, we need to feel safe, be listened to, reassured, and told that everything is going to be okay. As someone with EUPD I feel I get talked to like I’m crazy and that they can’t help me as the diagnosis is too ‘difficult’ to treat. Everyone suffers with different/multiple disorder and should all be treated as equals. It's sad to see the amount of people I understand are having the same experience and quite frankly I believe needs to be fixed immediately.

I don’t mean to be a little bit of a whinger but mental health is so so serious and causes so many deaths. In my opinion, it’s always a crisis, it is always an emergency. Please please get this all in check as there is so many people still struggling out there. Unfortunately for me I’m still struggling, but trying to face the fact that there’s nothing else I can do except get as much support elsewhere, which is all a hard process.

I appreciate the work most of you all do but I think some improvements can be made. 

Thank you for reading and if you had a similar experience don’t forget to share you’re story, u are all so so strong.