Broken

[Faithnomore]

Hoping there is someone out there who may have experienced something similar to what I am currently going through and who may be able to point me in the right direction with regard to getting some help. I've attempted to contact all the usual suspects including homeless and mental health organisations, but it's a waste of time. I've even taken myself to 5 different hospitals across two states begining for help, but when you present to the emergency departments of hospitals as a homeless person the hospitals put you on the bottom of the priority list which means you you sit in the waiting room for 12 hours or more until you give up which is what the hospital is hoping you will do. To cut a very long story short, 18 months ago I was scammed out of my life savings and needed to be rescued from overseas by the embassy. I was a financially secure 59 year old man at the time who had just taken early retirement. The embassy paid for my flight back to Australia and dropped me at Sydney airport. I needed to hitchhike back to my home town of Port Macquarie because I didn't even have enough money to buy a train or bus ticket. After filling out police reports for the theft of my money I realised that I was never going to see my money again and had to come to terms with now being 60 years old, broke and homeless. The past 18 months have been hell and it has broken me mentally. The stress of it all has led to me becoming very ill, both mentally and physically. Finding medical assistance once you have homeless written on your medical file is almost impossible. Doctors don't take you seriously and hospitals think you are only after a free bed for the night. If anyone has any advice it would be much appreciated. Cheers

[Faithnomore]

Just two years ago I was living in a 5 bedroom house in Port Macquarie and making close to 200K annually as an NDIS independent coordinator and support provider. After suffering severe mental burnout from working too many hours I decided to take early retirement and moved to Bali where I was building my retirement home. I now find myself homeless and mentally broken after getting conned out of my life savings by someone I knew well and trusted. I lost my house and every cent I had in the bank and needed to be rescued from Bali by the embassy as I didn't even have the money to fly back to Australia. For the last two years I have presented myself to 5 different hospitals in 3 different states begging for medical assistance. Once the hospitals know you are homeless they won't treat you.  The trauma I have been through has caused severe mental and physical illness. I have always been a mentally strong person, but what I have been through has broken me. I have reached out to every homeless and crisis organisations I can find begging for help only to have doors slammed in my face and told to get in the queue. Losing my life savings was bad enough, but the way I have been treated since the government brought me home has been nothing short of disgusting. So much so, that an ABC journalist approached me 12 months ago about using my story for a Four Corners type news report on the descriminstion against the homeless by our hospitals and medical system in general. I moved to Cairns 6 months ago because a doctor told me there is a highly respected rheumatologist working out of the Cairns Base hospital who would have to treat me if I presented myself to the hospital. I couldn't get past the emergency department front desk once they knew I was homeless. I have been referred to this specialist by 3 different GP's in Cairns and I am still waiting for a phone call six months later. I have now been camped out at the Brisbane International airport for six weeks after jumping on a bus from Cairns to Brisbane to try and see a rheumatologist in Brisbane. I finally got a call from the doctor last Friday telling me they would only take me as a private patient at $500 per consult. I have reactive rheumatoid arthritis which has been caused by the stress I have been through over the past 2 years. This has also now caused me to develop an autoimmune disease. I have been prescribed steroids to keep me walking but the steroids are damaging my eyes which is a side effect of the steroids I am on. I need help please. Every doctor I get to see tells me my situation and medical condition is too complex for them. I have been told several times by doctors that I am not your stereotypical mental health patient and therefore don't tick any of the boxes required for treatment or assistance. 

[randomxx]

Very sorry about all you've been through op. But first thing came to mind while reading was why the bloody hell would you have come back to Australia anyway. With how crazy the place has become , to hell with that l would've stayed in Bail myself . Without piles of money and all their pretty little stupid bloody boxes ticked in Australia now your screwed in all the stuff you've been going through.

l've heard people get to see someone in days , all through Asia and Bali but l'd also be thinking there'd be far more opportunity if someone was homeless bc people are still kind of heart in much of Asia and with good will , something Australia totally lost years ago and is just a shallow money money red taped fool of a place these days- well apart from within a few very rare areas now and those few caring people ofc that come with them.But as we see everyday, even they are bogged down too in the insanity of of costs and the right boxes ticked and the idiocy of red tape here. l'm sure there's plenty of people over there to willing to take your money as well though too l know as is anywhere but l've mostly heard so many beautiful things about the people over there and just life in general.

l really hope you can find what you need now that you are back though anyway it sounds and the biggest of luck very soon to you eh with it all. 

lt's so very very surreal l know 1st hand unfortunately, going from where you were, to where it is now but l hope things start looking up very very soon for you.

Hoping something happens very soon for you.

rx

[Faithnomore]

Randomxx, Firstly, thank you so much for your kind words. 

To answer your main question as to why I came back to Australia, trust me it wasn't out of choice. All the positive things you said about Bali are 100% true which is why I packed up and left Australia for greener pastures in the first place. The problem was, when I got scammed the low-life thief got every cent I had and then went underground. I ended up sitting on my suitcases on a Bali beach for 3 weeks while the embassy worked on the paperwork to get me home. Luckily for me, a couple of the beach restaurants I used to frequent on previous holidays looked after me and fed me. Typical of the kind hearted Balinese people. I had no choice but to come back to Australia and apply for Centrelink benefits because I was now broke and you can't legally work in Bali if you're a foreigner. Boarding that plane to come back to Australia killed me after I had worked so hard to realise my dream of immigrating to Bali. But worse was yet to come once  arriving back in Australia. I was dropped in Darwin of all places. I was told that Darwin is full of non for profit charity organisations like the Salvation Army who would be able to assist me. How wrong they were. I had to walk 15kms from the Darwin airport to the city in the middle of summer pulling my suitcases because no taxi driver or bus driver would offer me a free ride, I collapsed in front of a city shop out of exhaustion when I got to the city. The shop owner came to assist me and rang the Salvation army for assistance. I was told by a nice lady on the phone to present myself to the Salvation Army homeless hostel in the city and ask for help, which I did.  I was turned away at the door by the receptionist and a security guard. The  receptionist told me to come back when I have some money as they are not a charity service. I then applied to all the homeless shelters and religious groups in the area asking for help and got the same response from all. I was told to come back after I had been approved for Centrelink benefits which they would direct debit from my bank account in return for a bed. The only advice I was given was to sleep in the bush and stay out of view of the locals otherwise I would get mugged and have my luggage stolen.  I got mugged and beaten up twice in the next three weeks while sleeping on the streets waiting for Centrelink to process my application.  Nobody cared. Both Darwin hospitals refused to treat me because I turned up at the hospital pulling my suitcases. I was immediately labelled homeless by the hospital reception and shown the door. After putting in an official complaint about both Darwin hospitals,  negative comments were added to  my medical file which is now making it difficult for me to get treated anywhere in Australia. This is when the journalist contacted me and proposed we tell my story in the media. She told me the homeless have been mistreated in Darwin for years and the most discriminated against were middle aged white males. Anyway enough said. I am now writing a book as a form of therapy because nobody will help. All the talk of mental health and the need to speak up when suffering is nothing but words.  Sorry for ranting my friend, it's just hard sometimes having nobody to talk to. Hope you have a nice weekend and thanks again for reaching out to me. Hugely appreciated. 

[randomxx]

Ah thx op no problem l'm just sorry it's not more than just words. There's some really experience people round here though and hopefully some will see your thread.

The Darwin stuff sounds insane l'd have thought that could've been a good place to land too well , apart from the heat but so much for that.

You rant away all you need if it helps man , that's one of the things this place is for.

[Faithnomore]

Thanks again Randomxx.

The one thing I have learnt since becoming homeless is, it's impossible to dig yourself out of the whole without someone helping you. There is a movie on at the cinemas at the moment that needs to be seen. It's called The Salt Path. A true story about an English couple who lost their home and became homeless. I went to see the movie a few days ago. It was good and so true. 

[Faithnomore]

Hi Random,

Not sure if you are receiving my messages to you. Beyond Blue have sent me a couple of messages telling me they are editing my posts to you. Something about breaking the rules. 

[randomxx]

Hey op.

Glad the movies helped sounds great but yaknow, it happens far more often than we'd realize even here , l'm not here much but l have still seen a lot of threads from others going through very similar.

Yaknow, read once dunno if it was true , but Kernel Sanders, kfc, was in the exact same situation early 60s and all he had was he's mums chicken recipe. He took it too someone and that's how kfc started. Bit of a classic eh.

Bloody shame yaknow, must be so many people out there with empty rooms and houses living alone or whatever, l always think about that with the housing situation here now. l had 2 myself most of the time in my old place, actually ran an ad , someone could have a room free, especially if they liked cooking  ha ha- l'm the worst cook ever, didn't get one inquiry, not one., bloody bizarre.

Maybe you could get something like that though ,  do a bit of care taking or whatever. Lot of farms offer stuff like that too.

Anyway well, got out of that place and the deal l had going to get it after divorce, was a starting over thing and means to stay close to my daughter while she was growing up. She lived with me a lot through 8yrs or so too but the last few she was out doing her thing or at her mums or wherever. My gf was also staying a lot too but eventually we broke up and l had two extra rooms.

Well, didn't get much out of that house bc of the stupid people and deal l had going with it but l did still actually own a couple of blocks in a tiny town , those l managed to keep after our marriage if l paid off some debts so l jumped at that. Well they have a small cabin on it l built myself been renting it out 15yrs but tenants wreck it every time and now l'm selling it , need the money anyway now to get a something else but l was also just done with bloody tenants too.

Well , when l left my other house l bought a cheap caravan and wanted to go for a wander hopefully while the cabin  is selling so l'm still doing that, been 6mths now.

Things is, haven't had any repayments or paid 1 cent in rent 6mths now there's free camps all over the country they're great some of them even have showers but others toilets maybe or even just water they vary but some of them are really nice , better than caravan parks and there's people all over living in vans some even just tents.

lf you could scan for a very cheap van or some are even a free, get it taken out to a free camp somehow you could at least have a base for now and small roof over the old head for a start. Some of them set them up really nice can't believe some of the setups.

Anyway just thoughts, could be something somewhere in it.

Hang in there eh.

rx

[Faithnomore]

Hi Random,

Bad day today mate. Security guards at the airport came and had a chat with me this morning. "Sorry buddy but you need to move on". I knew it was coming. They have been awesome up until now by turning a blind eye to me being there when other homeless people have been moved on after a few days. The police shared my story with them and told them to cut me some slack which is why they have been good to me. Anyway, I've been on the phone all day calling all the usual suspects trying to get some help, but the same old story. They either put you on hold for over an hour and then hang up or they palm you off to another organisation. I'm out of gas mate. I'm a fighter but there is only so much one  can take. Thanks for being there and reaching out to me. As you know, little things like that are huge when you're homeless and think nobody cares. Bye

[Beaser]

Hey Buddy

I just came across your posts. 

I just want to send you some good will and say how i really admire your resilience. Wow youve been through so much and fight on. 

I hope that you can get the breakthrough you deserve in Darwin.   I know that the knock backs from people and organizations can be heart breaking.

I know there are also some great people out there and i really hope you come across one soon.

Wishing you best wishes for the day. Stay safe and well please. 

Beaser,