Friends, Family & Carers Forum

[Artemis1971]

Hi @LinnyLou. What a horrid year you must be having. I haven’t been on here for a while as my daughter has been doing ok. She had a review with a psychiatrist a few months ago, who changed her medications, and for the first time in her life I would say she is well. It’s been a bloody long journey. 

I’m not saying that every day is perfect but it’s damn near close compared to what we were going through. For her it must feel like she’s a whole new person. She’s studying at TAFE and working part time. I never thought we’d get to this point and I don’t think she did either. 

The public mental health system is appalling, as is the general public health system at the moment. There were many times I wanted to give up. I thought that there was no answer to what we were experiencing and that she had little to no future. My point of this rant is DO NOT GIVE UP. Keep getting appointments with as many people as you can until you find the fix. It may take years, as it did for us, but, thankfully, we got there in the end. I’m not saying she will never be unwell again but I will now never take a ‘professionals’ advice as gospel if it is not the right answer for my daughter. 

One of the things I have learnt out of this experience is that the consumer and the carer have the right to refuse or question treatment if it does not suit or is not meeting their needs and to ask for a second or third opinion if the dignosis/information does not work for you. They actually teach about the advocacy of the consumer and carer in mental health courses now. My daughter is currently studying Cert IV in Mental Health (go figure) and consumer and carer rights are a very large component of what she is learning. Why this is not trickling down to the current workers is beyond me but I’m hoping that as time goes by this will change. 

I wish you and your daughter all the best and I’m happy to be an ear if you need it.

Artemis