Venting It pisses me off so much when people who work in mental health don't understand mental illness

[LittleJem]

I'm living in supported accommodation and today's support worker - they have a new one every day it seems - when he got nervous about giving my meds I said I can't kill myself on them: I am an expert on suicide methods.

He tried to give me some kind of jolly 'come on' and he wouldn't make eye contact with me. So I said - look me in the eyes, which he really didn't want to do and I said many people with mental illness would prefer to be dead.

I hate how dismissive and patronising it is and I don't need it where I live.

On this note a FB acquaintance just posted a story about a 28 year old getting assisted dying in the Netherlands. I nearly commented then I thought it's pointless. They will never understand.

 

[AshersGirl]

I know someone who was held under the mental health act who tried to hang himself whilst an inpatient and the nurses told him off because "imagine the trauma you'd cause the nurse who found you".

He was in a mental health ward, detained for wanting to ctb, and the clinical staff piled on excess guilt because he dared to attempt whilst in their "care"?!

Fair few times in the distant past I had been to A&E (ER) after an overdose and the staff just left me sitting in agony and panic in the waiting room, dismissive and judgemental because I'd done it to myself and all they could apparently do was wait for blood test results to establish whether I'd done lasting damage (paracetamol and aspirin overdoses - misinformed in my youth, not recommended). Still, I was a teenager. They could have at least pretended empathy

Don't start me on mental health nurses. I know there are some good ones but the ones I've met have been some of the most horrible people ever. Why go into profession like this is you don't care about your patients?!

 

[KuriGohan&Kamehameha]

The system is this way by design, at least in most countries. In the UK there is something called fitness to practice, wherein a person can be dismissed from their medical or nursing education if they are considered unfit to practice.

While you'd think this would be used for egregious offenses only, it is common to dismiss people if they have mental health issues. The working patterns and strict regulations enshrining the medical establishment are meant to be high stress, high pressure, and simeltaneously neurotic- constantly making the staff afraid of litigious action.

Another issue is that many staff don't keep up with current research or desire to expand their knowledge, they are stuck in the past both when it comes to treatments and attitudes surrounding health issues. Most people don't realize medical practice is mostly a tickbox exercise (especially in the NHS) with little room for creative input or thought when things don't go according to stringent guidelines.

I know the average type of person who goes into these sorts of fields because I studied alongside them or encountered them at university for years. They tend to be rich, healthy, and come from families where they are all healthcare workers, they have no personal connection to the issues that they're supposed to be treating and are not passionate about it, they don't have the lived experience to put themselves into the position of the patient.

If you like movies, there's an interesting film called patch Adams about this exact issue, starring Robin Williams so you know you're in for a good performance. The plot centers around a man who had been in a psychiatric ward when he was suicidal, and noted the distinct lack of humanity from doctors towards his fellow patients, which motivates him to study medicine in an attempt to reform the system. Despite this movie being over 25 years old, not much has changed since it was filmed.

 

[TheGoodGuy]

They will never understand.

Which is why it is so important we have a site for this because you can´t talk to people in real life about suicide, or on Facebook, Instagram, Reddit etc. there is nowhere but here where you can talk about it without people pulling their book up (figuretively speaking) with pro-life lines we have heard a million times before.

 

[Kit1]

I know someone who was held under the mental health act who tried to hang himself whilst an inpatient and the nurses told him off because "imagine the trauma you'd cause the nurse who found you".

He was in a mental health ward, detained for wanting to ctb, and the clinical staff piled on excess guilt because he dared to attempt whilst in their "care"?!

Fair few times in the distant past I had been to A&E (ER) after an overdose and the staff just left me sitting in agony and panic in the waiting room, dismissive and judgemental because I'd done it to myself and all they could apparently do was wait for blood test results to establish whether I'd done lasting damage (paracetamol and aspirin overdoses - misinformed in my youth, not recommended). Still, I was a teenager. They could have at least pretended empathy

Don't start me on mental health nurses. I know there are some good ones but the ones I've met have been some of the most horrible people ever. Why go into profession like this is you don't care about your patients?!

I can identify with what you have written. The last time I took an overdose and ended up in hospital, the urge treated me so badly that I have never returned to the hospital despite being unwell or after further overdoses - I would rather take the consequences of liver damage than deal with some of the heartless medical practitioners - there are some decent ones, but the rotten ones ruin it for all of us and condemn us to a life of suffering - or perhaps it is another way of making sure that we are not "burdening " the NHS.

 

[karmaisabitch]

It just a system/business, none really do magic to fix mental illness but realistically they have to do something about it. It's like the cancer doctor he doesn't cure but he still try things.. most of the teens died by suicide had psychiatric and medication and still didn't help them

 

[Linda]

It's difficult to really understand something you haven't experienced yourself. But a professional has a duty to support their patients as best they can. Some of them are clearly in the wrong job.

 

[AshersGirl]

The system is this way by design, at least in most countries. In the UK there is something called fitness to practice, wherein a person can be dismissed from their medical or nursing education if they are considered unfit to practice.

While you'd think this would be used for egregious offenses only, it is common to dismiss people if they have mental health issues. The working patterns and strict regulations enshrining the medical establishment are meant to be high stress, high pressure, and simeltaneously neurotic- constantly making the staff afraid of litigious action.

Another issue is that many staff don't keep up with current research or desire to expand their knowledge, they are stuck in the past both when it comes to treatments and attitudes surrounding health issues. Most people don't realize medical practice is mostly a tickbox exercise (especially in the NHS) with little room for creative input or thought when things don't go according to stringent guidelines.

I know the average type of person who goes into these sorts of fields because I studied alongside them or encountered them at university for years. They tend to be rich, healthy, and come from families where they are all healthcare workers, they have no personal connection to the issues that they're supposed to be treating and are not passionate about it, they don't have the lived experience to put themselves into the position of the patient.

If you like movies, there's an interesting film called patch Adams about this exact issue, starring Robin Williams so you know you're in for a good performance. The plot centers around a man who had been in a psychiatric ward when he was suicidal, and noted the distinct lack of humanity from doctors towards his fellow patients, which motivates him to study medicine in an attempt to reform the system. Despite this movie being over 25 years old, not much has changed since it was filmed.

All of this is so true. I have worked in NHS (not clinical, though worked closely with clinical staff) and some of the things I've heard coming out of peoples mouths about their patients is horrific. I know high stress oftimes results in dark humour as coping mechanisms but how drs and nurses can talk about mental health patients is terrible. They disconnect the empathy and humanity in part as a coping mechanism to not take their work home with them I think, but there has to be balance.

Even if they do keep up with changes in clinical practice, it's rarely forefront, only what's been fed to them, often more to do with first/second/third line recommended treatment options which in U.K. I think are more likely set by cost than proven clinical efficacy.

They're all supposed to earn a certain amount of CPD points (continued professional developmental) a year to keep license to practice but this can be made up of so many things. I think they just don't have time to keep abreast of everything. I also think there is far too much of "I will do this because a textbook told me too" and not enough of "I'm going to get to know the patient as an individual and tailor treatment pathway according to what will work best for them".

And since gp treat most patients attending for mental health issues and referrals take so long to even get made never mind waiting times, it's even more about throwing drugs at people.

They can't get to know the individual when they see them for half an hour every six months

Or for an hour a week for six weeks "talking therapy" before service discharge and a new referral is required.

U.K. puts generic plasters on gaping wounds and wonders why people fall through the cracks.

I can identify with what you have written. The last time I took an overdose and ended up in hospital, the urge treated me so badly that I have never returned to the hospital despite being unwell or after further overdoses - I would rather take the consequences of liver damage than deal with some of the heartless medical practitioners - there are some decent ones, but the rotten ones ruin it for all of us and condemn us to a life of suffering - or perhaps it is another way of making sure that we are not "burdening " the NHS.

Yup. When I have an "episode" and succumb to impulsive overdose these days I just don't go to the hospital. I wait and figure out if I'm going to die or not, then wonder if I've done and lasting damage I don't know about but I don't tell anyone. It's the judgement. Last thing we need is judged, we feel bad enough and it is. X

 

[UKscotty]

They try their best but there is not much they can do for those of us who are untreatable.

 

[willitpass]

They try their best but there is not much they can do for those of us who are untreatable.

In my experience yes many of them are trying and yes there is limited much they can do for us. I don't, however, think all of them are trying.

I had a nurse have me restrained at 14 by large male security guards who carried me through the unit with my shirt rolled up enough to expose me, throw me in the seclusion room, have the large men rip my pants off, then gave me shots to sedate me. When they finally let me out of the restraint, she left the room and told me I could come out when I called down and refused to let me call my dad. How in the world was I supposed to calm myself down after all of that. I had done nothing to end up in a restraint, all Id done was sit in my bathroom and refuse to speak to them. I was not a threat to myself or others.

I've had a nurse yell at me that I was never going to succeed in life and I was only in the hospital because my family couldn't handle me anymore.

I attempted to hang myself in the psych ward and was told I was attention seeking and guilted by one of the staff that I had triggered her by making her see me like that.

I've been called attention seeking more times than I can count to the point that I would rather die a slow painful death than ever go to the hospital because I worry they'll think I just want attention.

I've been through unspeakable things and told things that no one should ever be told by mental health care workers. Some of them are trying their best. Some of them should never work in the mental health field.