Let’s Talk about Psychiatry
By Frances
Harris
To begin with, to be fair to
psychiatry, I would welcome input from psychiatrists if they have had better
outcomes than those in this story.
It’s for sure
there are not many of them in this town. Some patients do make it through the
system in better shape than they started out, but (after sixteen years as a
committed advocate) feedback and experience from inside treating and supporting
organisations, I haven’t seen the best results. The majority are in no position to advocate on
their own behalf due to their circumstances, and they probably never will.
Most people or
a relative will touch bases with a psychiatrist at some time in their lifetime.
Often they will unexpectedly and urgently need help, but from experiences with
my son Edward, I advise those people to look carefully before you leap into the
world of psychiatry and psychotropic drugs. The work of a neurologist and a General
Practitioner could sometimes be enough. If you or a relative are involved in
illicit or overused prescribed medications then I suggest you should read this
message and its updates. The story will make you feel uncomfortable, make you
cringe and possibly scare you, but it’s out there and won’t go away even if you
shut down your computer for now.
The mental
health system is like a quicksand pit that once a person is in it, rarely do
they escape. Containment of those in this wide net is something sanctioned by
law. Unfortunately there seems to be significant by-catch in that net, with
misdiagnosis and the like. Much of it is cruel, stressful and confusing, and one
must realize the psychiatrist is always right, or there can be consequences. In
the event of a mental health event, it is the most stressful feeling when your
loved one is treated at the whim of a psychiatrist. Often that person neither
knows the patient, nor cares, and there is no other option available.
In the
beginning, diagnosis is often at the whim of the first psychiatrist you meet. Right
or wrong that diagnosis is broadcast to the mental health system, and the Road
Traffic Authority for life, even if it is revised later. There is no exit from
that treatment without the risk of having the driving licence suspended. On entering
a hospital the patient will likely be forever treated according to the first
diagnosis, even if another psychiatrist sees it differently.
In my son
Edward’s case, when he enters the doors of Frankston hospital he must conform
to the first diagnosis, and when he walks outside the doors he reverts to the
second diagnosis
If a patient is
not happy with the treatment of their psychiatrist, and chooses another health
professional, the initial psychiatrist has been known to send out an alert to
all health facilities on a whim, that the patient is – non compliant with his
medication, even though that psychiatrist is no longer the treating doctor.
That can be done without evidence from blood tests or interviews with friends
and relatives, and even if the patient is on another prescribed medication at
the time. There is no way to revoke that alert once it goes out.
Sanctioned treatment
inflicted on mental health patients would by law, bring on a significant jail
sentence if inflicted on an animal.
Edward has been
involved in the Frankston (Hospital) Mental
Health System, Victoria, Australia; one of the country’s biggest centres for mental
health treatment after many unhelpful years in the private sector.
It’s now time
to open up to scrutiny a few of the darkest spaces of the mental health system.
I will update this message in small bites periodically, because the story is
confronting. I acknowledge the mental health service is only as good as funding
from governments and the quality of its hired staff. Many want to do better,
but are hampered by resources, while others don’t care what happens and duck
for cover when questions are asked. The lives of these people are of no
interest to them. The mental health service is secretive and anyone trying to
get information is usually frustrated.
And
essentially, for the unaware, there must be strong advocacy to ensure survival.
In the
background looms the undeclared inducements offered to psychiatrist, and clinics
that can heavily influence the patient’s treatment. The truth is; a
psychiatrist has, ‘next to no idea,’ what
psychotropic medicines do to the human body. If there is hypersensitivity, or a
slow absorption rate, chances are the life of that person will be at risk,
because the system is geared to; ‘one
size fits all.’ Rarely are blood tests done to check drug tolerance, screen
for allergy, heart problems, or given blood tests for medication levels. Unless
the advocate brings these things to the attention of the treating psychiatrist,
they are rarely addressed.
Some drugs
don’t show up in a toxicity test. There
are injections that have no antidote if something goes wrong, and these have a
history of patients who drop dead for no recognizable reason. The producing
company has a vested interest in recommending the maximum dose for maximum
profit. It is built in to directions.
As I am an
advocate and think, after sixteen years of being in the forefront of the mental
health action, I feel qualified to draw the spotlight onto the work of psychiatrists
there, both private and public. We have been in the private system, the public
system and – then successfully opted out of both after injury to successfully take
the advice of our general practitioner.
I’m sure there
are many fine, highly skilled, caring psychiatrists out there, but to date I’ve
never met any of them, or heard of one, or been recommended to one by a wise
professional. Three years ago when I asked staff in the hospital system and the
clinic, ‘where can I find a good psychiatrist?’ I was told - there are none. Now, I hear there are three psychiatrists
within driving distance, but don’t know how to find them.
The first real surprise
that came forward about psychiatrists is
something that left me wondering. I always thought they would have undergone extensive
years of training in say, toxicology, immunology, psychology, brain diagnostics,
structure etc. ……… so, highly skilled like a heart surgeon.
The truth is; a
psychiatrist is a General Practitioner who has been given - on the job training
in a psychiatric facility, while doing some general study, then within two
years – joins the field as a qualified psychiatrist. I think a chiropractor
does similar years of training.
So the
difference between mainstream medicine and psychiatry is that doctors make
every effort to save the patient in danger. But the life of the patient with a
mental illness who has potentially life threatening symptoms, the psychiatrist
will remain fixated on looking for breakthrough symptom, at any cost, including,
sometimes accidentally the life of the patient. Edward faced a life threatening
condition that was dismissed by a psychiatrist at the hospital even before the
diagnostic evidence was seriously examined. Luckily a second hospital picked it
up.
When Edward was
diagnosed with a potential life-threatening heart condition at the second
hospital, I was told by a staff member on behalf of the Frankston clinic psychiatrist
– ‘You are the only one who is worried about it!’ Now, I have the same
condition, and when found by the hospital, all resources were employed to
care for me. So what does that say about our mental health system?
Is it any
wonder that many with mental illness die from anxiety, not to mention anxious
parents, and to add there are more who leave the hospital so distressed from
incarceration at Frankston Hospital they go straight to the train lines to take
their own life, or jump from a great height, or overdose on anything that will
numb the trauma of treatment. This method of treatment is all in the interests
of dulling a few breakthrough symptoms of mental illness. The costs compared
with benefits are way out of line. Chances are the patient will need trauma treatment
after discharge from hospital.
I will
progressively roll out some more uneasy truths about psychiatry, and the never
ending hamster wheel of prescribed drugs, perpetual medication change and poor
health. Then there are the mentally ill
who are forced to undergo treatment on a Community Treatment Order; where the
patient must watch their body deteriorate before their eyes and can’t do
anything about it. It must be like hell for them.
Is anyone in
charge? I don’t know.
Have a good
week.
