The personal face of cuts to Better Access

Prof Hickie, Dr McGorry, A/Prof Cole and Mark Butler MP … please take note:

These are the people you described as being “the worried well” and the program a “travesty” during your aggressive campaign against the Better Access to Mental Health initiative.

As shared by Crystal – a proud psychologist in a rural area ...

Today is a day of seeing rural people with a double crisis in mental health – the severely depressed and anxious are told the government has ceased their Medicare rebate.  Some have been dreading this day for months, "but there is a senate inquiry we are waiting on, how can they cut our Better Access?"

1 man, 80s, just lost wife to Alzheimer’s, looked stricken, "this can't happen" to mental health in Australia "Surely we could ask Pat McGorry to help"

A young mother in 30s, husband left her after horrific car accident, PTSD, baby 6 months, "can't feel close to her" 10th Better Access appointment = last

Child care worker in 20s, not spoken about child sexual abuse before, courage after 10yrs silence, trust poor, 12th Better Access appointment = last

Man 30's, mother died of cancer, family estranged, divorce pending, work injury not acknowledged by Workcover, difficulty speaking, last Better Access appointment

Woman 50s, son terminal cancer, abuse history, very poor supports, social anxiety paralysis, DSP, rural area, son death, 13^th Better Access appointment = last

Teacher in indigenous school, abuse history, panic attacks, drives 90 mins for appointments, rural, colleague death last week, 14th Better Access appointment = no more

Gutsy woman in 30s, chronic pain disorder, sons have ASD, DSP, abuse history, self-harming & trust battle, Better Access gone, rural, Mental Health support gone

13yr old girl, 2 suicide attempts, parents divorcing, State MH services said she is “ok”, panic attacks & school a daily battle, 14th Better Access appointment = last

Big silent ex-ambo, paralysed in PTSD, nightmares, panic, humiliation, trust THE issue, 2 psychs b4 me, 15th Better Access = last, no more MH support

Step-dad & dad to developmentally delayed kids, wife died from cancer, travels 45mins to his 9th Better Access appointment for severe depression, rural, planning final appointment for 2011

I will keep going because somebody needs to tell their story. Dozens more are in the same position. These are the people affected by mental health "reform"

Young digger, ex-Iraq, does not trust DVA or centres, severe PTSD, self disgust as frequently soils himself, panic & triggers, 2 Better Access appointments left

Recently homed homeless, methadone progress, severe PTSD/abuse history, just started a job, ongoing self-harm, state mental health not see, 16th Better Access appointment = no more

These people, let's not forget they ARE people, live in rural areas. Most can't pay, most won't be seen by the State, no headspace centres, no other access to mental health services

Mother, 20s, 1st baby died SIDS months ago, husband not coping, disoriented & poor supports, suicidal thoughts, 8th Better Access appointment, no other MH services

Woman, 40s, ex-foster/street kid, trauma history, just received department file, panic, work marginal 14th Better Access appointment, no MH support after 01/11

From next week some people in my rural area will have no MH support. They’ll need to go to an emergency department, wait 2-4 wks for a GP, there is some intake to State services but they are ineligible, 10+ Better Access appointments no joke

Last Better Access appointment for 2011 for a woman, 40s, 3 kids, fleeing domestic violence, PTSD, child sex abuse history, severe depression, no access to other MH services

Appointment with woman, 40s just disclosed child sex abuse after 9 appts, 10th Better Access today. Took this long to open, nowhere to go. Disgrace

The shock people have as I prep & help plan for Better Access cut=bad. Still talking to psychs who are unaware of Tuesday's cuts=horrendous

16 yr old male, bullied, parents divorcing, tension filled home, feels alone, Better Access cut, who will drive him over hr to headspace?

 

Psychiatrist visits 1 day/two weeks in my area. Takes 2 months for emergency appointment. Psychiatrist partnership = medication, Better Access = therapy

ATAPS has no practitioner choice, provisional registered psych, long waiting list & will be much worse once Better Access goes, new funding insufficient

Better Access critics say ATAPS case management, but most don't want clinical team of psychiatrist, nurse, psychologist, etc State provides this 

Most Better Access people want psychological treatment with psych as it works. It's cheap, non-intrusive & who is govt to choose what works?

Impact on Rural Australia

A Sunday Age article 'Cyber counsel for rural youth' (23/10) reported the benefits of a new e-counselling service for youth in rural areas which, in itself, is a wonderful development for young people. However, it neglects to mention one extremely important problem with this initiative:

It has come at the expense of a number of successful community-based programs, whose funding has been cut to pay for it.

Once upon a time ...

Once upon a time there was a magical land called Contentia where the people lived peaceful lives – free from war and famine.  Contentians went about their daily business working hard to create  opportunities for their children and contributing to a consumer dominated society.  They weren’t perfect, but Contentians understood how lucky they were to live in this wonderful land – happy to go with the flow and trust that their quality of life would always be guaranteed.

One day however, a professor at one of Contentia’s most respectable academic institutions saw that Contentians had become complacent about their lives and he devised a cunning plan:  

“I’ll tell the people they’re sick,” he declared, “and show them there’s only one way to be well: My Way! The people work hard for their children.  If I tell them their children are sick, they’ll do whatever it takes to make them better again,” planned the ambitious professor.

Knowing it would be a huge undertaking, the ambitious professor recruited some strategic partners to help him with his venture.  He needed:

 

A big business partner

An unproven, non-evidenced-based “expert”

in youth mental health

And a politician vain and stupid enough

to be putty in his hands.

Now the people of Contentia started seeing signs pop-up everywhere that mental illness was rampant in society.  They were being told that Contentia had one of the highest rates of depression in the modern world and this would require early intervention on a massive scale as young people were most at risk.  Contentians started to talk more about mental illness but weren’t quite sure what to do about it.

The ambitious professor and his colleagues came up with a brilliant plan: “Let’s nominate our youth mental health expert for Contentian of the Year! That will give our scheme credibility and average Contentians won’t dare to question our knowledge or authority.”  So that’s what they did. 

Low and behold, the expert became Contentian of the Year and everyone looked to him for his opinion on all matters related to mental health and/or illness.  No one ever questioned his advice or authority because … well, Contentia would never award Contentian of the Year to a person of a less than scrupulous nature!

Slowly but surely the ambitious professor’s plan was unfolding.  He had the media and the government eating out of his hands.  Every committee, advice group and panel on mental health in the land was in his favour and he was beginning to change the very landscape of mental health reform in Contentia.  The power was exhilarating!

Armed with the confidence and knowledge that they’d achieved all this, the ambitious professor and his colleagues used the silly politician to take funding from some of the most vulnerable people in Contentia, those being treated for mental illness; and redirected the funds to their two pet projects.  Together they’d fudged evidence and statistics and made it all appear squeaky clean.  Besides, if the vulnerable people didn’t like it, they’d never speak up because there was still such a stigma in society about having a mental illness.

But a remarkable thing happened in Contentia – Contentians began to wake from their complacent slumber and say: “Hey … something’s not quite right here!”  They began talking in social media forums and started to see that others had similar misgivings. The more they talked, the more support they found and slowly, but surely, the people began to find their voice.  For the first time they questioned the authority of the ambitious professor and the youth mental health expert.  Like most egotistically driven people, the ambitious professor and the expert didn’t respond well to criticism – they began to fray around the edges; and some of their so-called "evidence" proved to be false and not supported by their peers.  This gave more people confidence to speak up and suddenly a movement was born.

People wrote to politicians demanding answers; an official Senate Enquiry was announced and more than 5,700 people put their names to a petition.  It was beautiful to see the Contentians unite and speak up for their fundamental human rights of access to universal mental health care.

The story isn’t finished yet, as another chapter will be written when the Senate Enquiry delivers its report on Friday 28th October.  Will there be a happy ending for the Contentians?  Only time will tell. 

In the meantime, you can join the people and add your support to their campaign by clicking here.

Don’t tell me farmers aren’t extraordinary people

I’ve always known there are two fundamental roles in society that require extraordinary ability and fortitude to fulfil: one is being a Parent, the other a Farmer.  The work of both never ends: there are no weekends or public holidays or rostered days off; the job doesn’t fall neatly between 8am-5pm.  Yet so much of their work goes unrecognised or unappreciated by society at large.  We simply take for granted that parents will be there to support and provide for us; and farmers to feed and clothe us.

So … I decided to use the information provided in the current AHC10 - Agriculture, Horticulture and Conservation and LandManagement Training Package, to make a list of the skills and knowledge identified by the Industry Skills Council for the Australian agrifoods sector, AgriFood Skills Australia, of what it takes to be a farmer today.  Obviously, some of these are industry specific, but it might just surprise you – the list, while not comprehensive, is long …. VERY long: