Helen's story*

"After my son’s initial treatment, he was let go by the mental health system and I was left completely alone, without even a recommendation to a psychiatrist

My son Daniel was first diagnosed with mental health issues when he was 19 and was admitted to a youth mental health facility for intensive outpatient treatment. After his treatment finished there was no further follow up. Over the years that followed, he had several new episodes for which I contacted the Crisis Assessment and Treatment Team (CATT). The CATT team saw him at home and was pretty good, but again, after the episode was managed, he was not followed up. Even today I feel that if his health had been properly managed after his first crisis his long-term outcome would have been much better. Daniel is now 33 years old.

Getting CATT teams to come out to see him has often been difficult and I have even faked an emergency to get them to come. After the last crisis, I gave up work and took early retirement to look after him. I had to sell my house to help finance this and to get him into supported accommodation. Housing for Daniel has been a big issue. He is currently in a Peer Recovery Centre (PRC) which is pretty good and I really like the social interaction that he gets there, but it is only temporary and they don’t include me in his treatment plans. There needs to be safe accommodation for people with acute mental conditions with the flexibility to allow longer-term housing.

In my experience, I see a lack of communication between provider services. Often when different services see Daniel they repeat the same questions and processes that he has had before. There doesn’t seem to be a good way to make sure new services read patient notes, and I think that they often don’t! Services need people to help coordinate treatment, activities, and advocate on behalf of patients and family carers. For people who already have a difficult time coping, consistency in personnel is important if treatment for patients is to be effective.

I think better training for staff of provider services on acute mental health conditions would be a big improvement, even at psychiatrist level. Often psychiatrists seem to just be there to prescribe medications. Most of Daniel’s appointments have been for 15 minutes. How can that lead to longer-term treatment and recovery?

A practical recommendation I would like to make would be access to in-home services. Services could include assistance and education with grooming and personal hygiene, which is often a big problem for patients and their family carers. The same could be done for food and nutrition which is another area that is often neglected. In the long term, it is probably more expensive to treat than prevent."


* Names and places have been changed to protect individuals.

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Family and friends supporting someone with mental health issues can call Tandem’s Support & Referral Line on 1800 314 325