Update! Safety Guideline Amendment

[Former-Member]

Thanks @BlueBay.
I’ve just moved from a 4 week stay in a public acute ward to a private hospital.
The private psychiatrist wasn’t particularly helpful, friendly or hopeful.
My past hospitalisations have been mixed, if this is bed, I’m leaving. If it’s good, hopefully I will never enter the mental health system again. I’m done.
I’ve never seen sane chat online? When is it open?
I think we also need a post about posting safely for triggering material. I upset some people with my last posts.

[Former-Member]

Hi @Former-Member and @BlueBay ,

Thanks to you both for contributing to this conversation about the Safety Guideline.

The SANE Australia Help Centre is open Monday to Friday, 10am to 10pm EST. If all the counsellors are occupied you may sometimes find that it takes you a while to connect. Details about contacting the Help Centre are available here. 
It may be necessary to refresh your browser page to update the chat status occassionally.

A useful list of other helplines is available here on the HealthDirect website.

[Former-Member]

@Former-Member,
I’ve been an on and off again member for well over 5 years. I’ve made it onto chat TWICE in that time.
It is NEVER AVAILABLE.

[Former-Member]

My experience with helplines is of the following:
1. Wait is so long I give up
2. Call the CATT team
3. Go to hospital
How is any of the above helpful or appropriate.

[Former-Member]

Hi @Former-Member 

I'm sorry to hear that you've had some unhelpful and frustrating experiences with services. I do hope that your current hospital stay is the supportive experience that you need.

[Former-Member]

Honestly, this is all well and good in theory. But in practice, what happens to all the people who have tried and utilised those services to no avail, or only to be harmed by them over and over again? What about those of us with complex trauma as a result of them, or with such significant early childhood trauma as part of their complex trauma that they have no concept of what safety even is because it was never provided for them to have learnt and developed an establishment of what safety is, and how to achieve it for themselves?

What happens when terms like duty of care and safety mean nothing to the person and are only there to uphold the professional? What happens when they are used to justify abusing and neglecting people? 

What kind of place or arrangement is there for those people?

[Former-Member]

I was hoping that I would get a reply because not only is what I mentioned something that I find very difficult about the forums, but I think that it would benefit the forums to become more trauma informed about the whole safety, somewhat stringent expectations to not use language that may discourage help seeking and difficulties a person with complex mental health issues may have due to trauma brought on by crisis and other mental health services phenomenon.

To a degree, I believe that this part of the guidelines perpetuates the stigma of members and others who have a traumatic history, especially a complex and or developmental trauma history. I think both the forums and SANE overall needs to become more knowledgeable and educated about those issues and the challenges with safety and trust in services that people who have them present with. 

I apologise if I was too abrupt and blunt in my previous post, but this is an area that I am very impacted by and passionate about, and I was only trying to get the message across that I believe it needs to be addressed in order for the forums to be a place of genuine acceptance and connection. 

Thanks. 

[Former-Member]

Hi @Former-Member 

I'm so sorry that your previous post did not receive a response from a SANE Moderator. I hear what you are saying about how unsafe and scary it can be continuing to reach out to services that have not been available and have only exacerbated someone's trauma. You are right in what you say around the importance of being authentic about negative experiences people have when reaching out for mental health help - it a very sad and unfortunate reality. I think speaking about this from your own perspective, as you have done in your last post, is fair. At SANE, we just want forum members to feel that all kinds of experiences in interacting with mental health services are possible and allowed in this space.

I can hear that you feel like SANE and the Forums could be more educated about the difficulties people face around trusting and presenting to mental health services. If you have any feedback, comments or questions you would like to share with us about this, I urge you to email team@saneforums.org. We would be happy to hear your thoughts via this channel of communication.

I can hear that you are overall very passionate about these issues and, thus, could be a powerful advocate on behalf of those who have had very similar experiences to you. 

Kindest,

Amour_Et_Psyché