@TideisTurning wrote:
I can see how much thought and consideration you've given this @chibam. One thing that really stands out for me from what you've said is a system that is person-centred. A system which listens to the people it supports to ensure the support received is in line with what they want for themselves, rather than having 'ideal' outcomes dictated by someone else, where that may not be in line with what the individual wants. What a great vision!
I have heard that phrase, "person centered" used to describe the ambitions for the system reform numerous times, @TideisTurning . I had hopes that meant we were on the right track towards a much better system.
But from what I've been reading here, it seems as if we are drifting very much in the opposite direction.☹️
@Historylover wrote:
@Gwynn. I'm more on the side of patients than therapists. They can come up with all sorts of 'treatments, medications etc., and have been doing so for a very long time, but the mounting MH crisis is more the result of ineffectual treatments and lack of accountability than lack of finances, accessibility or algorithms...
Very true; which leads me back to my original point about how this is all flowing in to the election spin (although it is a much more permanent problem). The various parties and advocacy groups touting how much extra money the government is spending on mental health; or how much money some other party would spend were it in power. Either way, it draws the entire conversation into revolving around money, and perpetuates the mindset that the heart of our mental health system woes is - and has always been - a lack of funding.
I can't speak for everyone, of course, but just based off my own experiance, that is a complete load of rubbish. Between my family and the government, we gave the mental health system over $10,000 to fix my life (and that's not including the services of the psychiatrist I saw for 9 months, who's services were billed directly to Medicare!); and absolutely nothing was accomplished! They didn't even try to make things any better! It was just one enormous scam!
Meanwhile, most people are able to get the sort of assistance I needed for free from friends, relatives and coworkers; it only takes a few minutes/hours - days at most - of their time, and it makes a lifetime of differance for the person being helped.
So when I hear all these announcements about untold billions of extra money being poured in to the mental health system, I can't help but wonder what on earth they hope to accomplish, when $10,000 in just my case alone ($10,000 x 25million Australians = $250 billion dollars - to do nothing) couldn't accomplish a damned thing.
I wish they'd stop talking about lack of money and pouring more money in to the system; and instead start talking about how the truckloads of money they were already pouring in to the system could be better spent to produce actual results. Because $10,000 to accomplish nothing is beyond rediculous.
Don't tell me you are going to throw even more money into my treatment. Tell me what you are doing to insure that money - (ideally, it should only cost a fraction of it) - would be spent today to produce some recognizable improvement in my life.
