Our voices are not heard. A system in need of an urgent overhaul. For
the people now, and for those who will require services in the future. A
system supposed to support, which instead turns its consumers to mutes.
A system without unified structure....
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Our voices are not heard. A system in need of an urgent overhaul. For
the people now, and for those who will require services in the future. A
system supposed to support, which instead turns its consumers to mutes.
A system without unified structure. The very same system that passes
judgement on an illness already stigmatised by society. How are we
supposed to believe in ourselves when the system we have entered,
creates non-beneficial views of its consumers? How can we be heard?
Where do we turn when we need the extra support and assistance to either
overcome or stabilise our illness? Since when did the brain become
excluded from our physical being? We are the people with mental illness.
If our pharmaceutical treatment was referred to as chemotherapy, would
society and the mental health system itself, view us differently? After
all, we are taking medication which when broken down, are chemicals; we
are indeed undergoing a form of chemotherapy. Just like cancer, mental
illness has just as strong probability and potential to kill. I won’t
dispute the fact that at times, mental illness is indeed self inflicted
by means of drug and or alcohol, abuse. But again, how does this differ
from any other illness? We can prevent a lot of cancers, but some of us
still choose to smoke, to get sunburnt, and to live sedentary
lifestyles. Why is the system that is supposed to support us, lacking in
so many ways? Why are the voices of the consumers not heard? Why does
our opinion of personal experience within the system not get
acknowledged? We are the mentally ill. We are human too, just like those
initiating, implementing, and working within the system. Some of those
working within the system themselves, do not have an adequate
understanding of mental illness. Too many times to remember, I was asked
why, when I have a job, a house, and children, am I unwell? And like I
would always say – I would trade everything excluding my children to not
be suffering within the realms of the illness itself. I, like many
others I have met, did not in any way contribute to the “acquisition” of
my mental illness. I did not choose to feel the way I felt, or to think
the way I thought. Just as a cancer patient did not request a particular
type of cancer, or request where and when it would show up next. It is
my belief, that the consumers of the public mental health system, do
indeed, need to band together to try and initiate change. To be heard.
To be allowed to be heard. Is the private mental health sector any
different? Well, yes. In some ways it is. For one, it is more
aesthetically pleasing to a private inpatient, however, the internals of
the system are much the same. Both systems rely heavily on medicating
its consumers, which sometimes, I believe quite unnecessary. I ask you,
as a fellow member of society – do you require medicating for every
emotion, action, or thought that falls outside the realms of the “norm”?
If the system cannot build trust within its consumers, then how are the
consumers supposed to believe in themselves? Unless you are a person
that likes to know the ins and outs and one’s rights within the system,
or are actually well enough to do this, then the uppermost practitioners
within the system will, and do, take advantage. It is certainly not
looked upon favourably if you question the practitioners views or
beliefs. Yet again, another example of how the consumers within the
mental health system are not heard. If you, a loved one, a friend, a
neighbour, a work colleague have ever suffered from a mental illness at
one time or another, then please, speak up WITH us. Not just for us. The
system needs change to better benefit its consumers, and the more
support we have, the greater chance we have of making it happen. Please,
help us to be treated as equals.
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