Fuck you. Fuck the lot of you.
Fuck politicians that say, in regards to Better Access - "If you think you will need to access more sessions, I encourage you to speak to the GP who refers you to mental health services and professionals. GPs liaise with mental health professionals and counsellors so that patients can achieve the best possible services and outcomes. There is a lot of information out there and it can be confusing, but I really recommend discussing your whole Mental Health Treatment Plan with your GP." (Tania Plibersek).
Fuck you for speaking to mental health consumers as though they are intelligently impaired. Fuck you for thinking that it's OK to speak to anyone in that patronising manner, and fuck anyone who thinks that the manner isn't patronising. Yes, sometimes the crap the government puts out is confusing - but what the fuck kind of chance do you think a GP has of figuring it out, when they also have every other aspect of health to keep on top of, if someone who can devote larger parts of time to research can't work it out? You are assuming that we're a bunch of fucking idiots, and I don't fucking appreciate it.
I'm crass. I lack fashion sense. I have teenage taste in music. I'm not a fucking idiot.
The problem is that the system is fucked up. It's got nothing to do with individuals being confused.
Fuck the ATAPS system. The entire fucking system. Fuck the lot of it. What a waste of fucking time, resources, and money. There are so many assumptions that come into play when it comes to this system that it defies fucking belief that anyone with more than two brain cells could actually think it would ever work, but here's some that piss me off the most:
1) The idea that ATAPS will reach more disadvantaged communities than Better Access can, or will. If only the fuckwits that decide these things had ever fucking lived in a disadvantaged community... Seriously - how the hell is an entire system of people going to reach disadvantaged people more than one single practitioner? It defies basic fucking physics for a start. It also costs a shitload more. If you want to reach disadvantaged communities, you don't take their care away while you fart arse around with some scheme that a fifth grader can see won't logically (or physically) work. You find out what the barriers are, and you fix them. Is it money? Then up the rebate for anyone living in those communities. Is it public transport or physical access? Then fix the fucking problem at hand.
2) The idea that ATAPS will work better for people with severe issues. For starters - how the fuck do you define a severe issue? At the moment, we seem to be going on diagnosis alone, with some fuckwits calling depression and anxiety "garden variety" illnesses. I bet that particular arse would lack the balls to go up to the family who has lost someone to suicide due to depression or anxiety and tell them that it wasn't "severe". A diagnosis alone doesn't indicate the severity of the condition. It also doesn't take into account that there may be diagnosis's that we haven't named yet, nor that some may be redundant. Like or hate the DSM, I think it's pretty obvious that it exists purely for insurance purposes, and as a general guide, and not out of any deep insight into the how's and why's of mental illnesses. We need to get a system up and running that takes each persons case as an individual case - not square them into a round hole. That sort of pushing people out of shape ends up with deaths.
Fuck government departments that listen to arseholes that lie about shit. And fuck people who pretend to give a shit about people when the only people they give a shit about are themselves.
Fuck anyone who contributes to stigma. I try to keep up with current developments in ASD theory and programs, and the best way to do that is by social media. Nobody researches better than a mother worried for her child. Some of these women are fantastic. Some of them need a bitch slap. I am sick and fucking tired of hearing "my kid doesn't have a mental illness - they have a neurological problem. There is nothing "wrong" with them." There's nothing "wrong" with people who have a mental illness either sweetheart - not in the way that you obviously mean. Yes, your child doesn't have a mental illness, and it can be frustrating to constantly distinguish, especially when you need to put forth with force the idea that it is not something that can be "fixed". However you can take your stigma, your patronising fucking attitude and shove it up your arse.
And while I'm at it - fuck anyone with a mental illness who does the same to people with a drug and alcohol problem. And that, sadly, includes me. I have done it from time to time. "I have a mental illness, I'm not a fucking druggie". It's the tone - the idea that one is OK, and the other isn't. The fucking superiority complex. It pisses me off when mental health professionals ask me when I last took drugs. I've done pot twice, to see what it was like. That's it. I don't have a fucking drug problem. But...
The way I look at it now - people who do drugs and alcohol are either in some desperate need of help, and the only help they could find was substance abuse, in which case they need our compassion, not our disdain; or they are just fuckwits (and allow me to point out that it's not like we're lacking in fuckwits in any type of demographic). Who also probably need our compassion and not our disdain. In any event, I don't think that "just because" someone goes down that path, that they are any "worse" than someone who doesn't. Just like I don't think that having a neurological disorder is any "better" than having a mental illness.
We're all fucking human for fucks sake. When the fuck did compassion become a commodity??? When the fuck did it become OK to judge someone based on the name and cause of their suffering? A football player goes out and gets banged up in the name of fucking sport, and I'd bet my arse we would all feel bad for them. But fuck that 19 year old who was raped as a six year old and has turned to drugs to numb the pain and take away the nightmares - that girl should know better!!! There will be no compassion for her today!
Yeah - fuck that shit!!!
And speaking of stigma, fuck this idea that more education is going to work. How many studies do we need to say that it doesn't before we'll listen? Do you know what will work? Proper health care. A choice in health care options that suit the person, not the demographic. We do this for kids under six with Autistic Spectrum Disorders - so it CAN be done. And health care that takes into account intentions, and not just acts. I've heard WAY too many times of people self-injuring just to get someone to help them. Because until they self-injure, they are ignored. If we want to combat stigma, we need to start treating people with a mental illness as intelligent until individually proven otherwise. We need to start giving people options that work for them. We need to get people back on their feet, so that having a mental illness isn't a fucking life sentence of social exclusion. We need society to be able to point at Johnny and say "hey, he has a mental illness, and he's OK" instead of pointing to people like me and saying "she has a mental illness and look at how fucked up she is - I don't want anything to do with THAT". You can educate all you fucking want, but until such time as people with a mental illness are treated as people first, you've got fucking buckley's of changing how people see us. And as for the rest who will believe that mental illness is something humanly inferior even when it slaps them in the face that it's not - you're never going to change their minds anyway. So fuck 'em.
Fuck public mental health. I am yet to meet someone who has been truly helped through the public system. I assume they are out there. Somewhere. I do know about the countless fucking people who have been abused. Who have been given the wrong medication or the wrong dose - and I mean life-threatening wrong here, not just the stock standard "this shit doesn't work" or "I'm having an abnormal reaction". Then there's the countless more who have begged for help, only to be turned away, who have then turned on themselves. Our public mental health system is a fucking disgrace, and not all of it is to do with being under-staffed and overwhelmed. The public mental health system is over fucking regulated when it comes to paperwork and strategies, and under fucking regulated when it comes to the hiring of fuckwits.
I've been reading up on a variety of Mental Health Commissions lately, and it is really starting to piss me off. In general really, though some of it does actually read well. Unfortunately, it's the same old shit that I see everywhere. It's the same old shit, given a new name, with some new players. Somewhere, there's a database of documents that just get copied and paste with a few words changed so that we don't plagiarise. It's hard to read without wanting to cut my fucking wrists - again. It's hard to imagine that THIS time is going to be any fucking different.
"We have a brand new mental health plan. We are investing in the future of mental health!"
No, you have the same fucking plan you had last time, just with different signatures at the bottom. You have had the same plan for quite a while now, and done jack shit about any of it. You are good at making fucking plans, and completely fucking crap at implementing them. Perhaps if you pulled your fingers out of your arse, you could get something done, other than make up pretty posters to stick behind the Premier when she gives a speech. Perhaps if you didn't crap on about "accountability" so fucking much and just let people get on with their jobs, they could actually have the time to do their fucking jobs. I wouldn't worry about accountability at all - we've had accountability for some fucking time now and it's fucking useless. People are still abused, they are still neglected, they are still treated like crap. People are still people. Instead of self regulating shit - how about we just make it fucking easier for people to complain? Make it so that people don't have to be scared to complain.
The shit we've had doesn't work. And yet, we seem to be pushing forward with plans to do the same shit again. The same systems. The same ideas. The same consultations. Someone once told me that there's a reason that people listen to Hickie, and not me. Yeah, you're right. People listen to people like Hickie because it's EASY. It's easy to make small changes and pretend you're being revolutionary.
Pity it fucks us over. This complacency.
We need to start remembering where we come from. We didn't invent the wheel by slightly changing shapes every few years until we got it right. No, some fucker decided "let's try this shit out", and let it rip.
Psychological therapies are getting there. Getting rid of any sort of respect for Freud was a great start. We have a ways to go, but once people start accepting that everyone is different, and is going to need an individual therapy, rather than the tick-a-box each week therapies, we'll get there. Psychiatry needs a good kick up the arse, but that has more to do with corrupt fuckers than it does with science.
Policy however - the politics of mental illness - this shit needs to be thrown out so that we can start again. Get all the departments, and sub-departments and get rid of them. Find the people who work there new jobs in other areas. Start fresh. Brainstorm. No idea is too fucked up until it is. Look at the actual problems that we face, instead of the perceived problems. Look beyond the information collected, and find out how it is collected. Pick every little thing apart, and question it.
Because this shit isn't working. And we desperately need something that does. Something completely different. Not just the same old shit with different branding.
The government always assumes that it's been on the right track and that only minor changes are needed. Fuck that shit! Fuck assumptions.
Assume NOTHING!!!
