I’ve just been reading in the news this morning that mental health groups want urgent changes to be made in the treatment of young people who show early signs of a mental illness, highlighting the fact that existing services tend to respond only when patients have started to display psychotic symptoms. The groups, including the Orygen Research Centre, the Brain and Mind Research Institute, the Mental Illness Fellowship of Australia and Sane Australia, called instead for a national network of 25 specialised youth mental health centres that would focus on treating people with psychosis early, when the prospects for recovery were strongest. The executive director of Sydney University’s Brain & Mind Research Institute has proposed that early intervention should be considered as essential in psychosis just as it is in cancer treatment. Apparently studies have shown that death rates amongst people recently diagnosed with a psychotic illness could be halved if they were treated in early intervention programs rather than by using traditional methods. Approximately 50 per cent of cases of psychosis are brought on by schizophrenia, with nearly 20 per cent caused by bipolar disorder and about 10 per cent by depressive psychosis.
I hope this proposal goes forward, especially considering that most metal health problems do begin to raise their ugly heads in the years spanning from childhood to young adulthood. I know for a fact that my own illness should have been detected and treated long ago. Even the intervention I received recently from the CAT (Crisis Assessment & Treatment team) left much to be desired, especially in the context of Primary Health Care. I went from being visited at home every day (except on weekends – which I believe had more to do with staffing rather than assessed need), to then being seen every second day, to then abruptly not being seen or contacted at all. The last “disengagement” visit consisted of two people, both of whom had never seen me before, they had barely sat down & were then off out the door again citing “how very busy they were”. My medication was yet to become therapeutic & had just been altered the day prior; the night before I had experienced racing thoughts with psychomotor agitation & had had a pretty significant episode of depersonalization. Only a week prior to this I had been suicidal. I believe that the CAT team had already decided prior to seeing me that day that I was to be “discharged” & no matter how I presented that “patient discharge” would be the outcome of the visit – the “goal”. I remember them even saying on the last visit how much I had improved – both of them had never seen me before & were just going by the progress notes, which despite efforts not to be are quite “subjective”. Yes, they gave me a 24hr number to call if I needed to, but I hate using the telephone at the best of times. As someone once said (I’ve forgotten who), “whoever invented the telephone never had a real conversation in their life”.
I hope this proposal goes forward, especially considering that most metal health problems do begin to raise their ugly heads in the years spanning from childhood to young adulthood. I know for a fact that my own illness should have been detected and treated long ago. Even the intervention I received recently from the CAT (Crisis Assessment & Treatment team) left much to be desired, especially in the context of Primary Health Care. I went from being visited at home every day (except on weekends – which I believe had more to do with staffing rather than assessed need), to then being seen every second day, to then abruptly not being seen or contacted at all. The last “disengagement” visit consisted of two people, both of whom had never seen me before, they had barely sat down & were then off out the door again citing “how very busy they were”. My medication was yet to become therapeutic & had just been altered the day prior; the night before I had experienced racing thoughts with psychomotor agitation & had had a pretty significant episode of depersonalization. Only a week prior to this I had been suicidal. I believe that the CAT team had already decided prior to seeing me that day that I was to be “discharged” & no matter how I presented that “patient discharge” would be the outcome of the visit – the “goal”. I remember them even saying on the last visit how much I had improved – both of them had never seen me before & were just going by the progress notes, which despite efforts not to be are quite “subjective”. Yes, they gave me a 24hr number to call if I needed to, but I hate using the telephone at the best of times. As someone once said (I’ve forgotten who), “whoever invented the telephone never had a real conversation in their life”.
Link The Australian Online: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24513712-2702,00.html
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