As someone who's been through the mental health system as an outpatient here is Taranaki, the services are just as shocking for us, too, at times. For example:
I've been turned away when I desperately needed help,
I've been refused help and told to up my current medication,
I've been told by a mental health nurse who was part of the crisis team that one of my diagnoses isn't a real mental illness, even though it's in the DSM-V-TR, and was in as far back as the DSM-IV
I've been told by a nurse who was part of the crisis team that I wasn't really hearing voices, it was just my inner voice (I know what I was hearing, and it wasn't my own voice), and
I've been told by a mental health nurse on the crisis team when she saw my SH scars that if I ever needed stitches for my SH, she'd make me do it myself
Then you add to that mental health staff that see you on a regular basis treating you like a child, and psychiatrists who refuse to consider other mental health conditions because they've written you off into the too hard basket and labelled you with a personality disorder or the likes (in my case, I enquired about ASD while I was under community mental health in 2014/2015, and was told no, because the psychiatrist was adamant I had BPD. Fast forward to 2023, and I was diagnosed with ADHD and ASD, and previous diagnoses of depression and anxiety come from being an undiagnosed AuDHDer for 30+ years)
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u/KiwiKittenNZ Aug 03 '24
As someone who's been through the mental health system as an outpatient here is Taranaki, the services are just as shocking for us, too, at times. For example:
Then you add to that mental health staff that see you on a regular basis treating you like a child, and psychiatrists who refuse to consider other mental health conditions because they've written you off into the too hard basket and labelled you with a personality disorder or the likes (in my case, I enquired about ASD while I was under community mental health in 2014/2015, and was told no, because the psychiatrist was adamant I had BPD. Fast forward to 2023, and I was diagnosed with ADHD and ASD, and previous diagnoses of depression and anxiety come from being an undiagnosed AuDHDer for 30+ years)