I don’t know a lot about the 2011 budget for Australia, I don’t profess to. But I did listen with interest to their plans for mental health. And frankly, I am baffled by some of it. Genuinely baffled. Not in a narky “I hate the budget” kind of way, more in a “please explain this nonsensical allocation of funds” kind of way.
I am not actually across the inner working of the Australia mental health system but I do know someone who needs it to be improved.
In fact I know that all Australians need a better mental health system – a system that can look after the people who suffer from mental illness, those people lost, scared, alone and with no hope of a stable future because there are no long term facilities and care is patchy and under resourced.
I know that the people of Australia need a mental health system that can accommodate their illness, that can ensure there are case workers that have the time and resources to follow through with their patients. I know that we need beds in hospitals in times of crisis. I know Australia needs a system where there are social workers and support people, and places of safety for people with mental illness to go for care, counselling, medication and understanding. Company even.
I know that Australia need a mental health system that will support those people that are trying their hardest to support the mentally ill – the families, the support people, the carers.
I also know that early intervention is important. I know that the thousands of homeless people roaming the streets of Sydney may have been saved that fate had they had early intervention and a clear shot at effective medication, counseling and life skills that could help them maintain a job and their place in society.
I don’t know about allocating a huge portion of the budget to mental health to intervention at 3 years of age.
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Think about every single person you know that suffers from some sort of mental illness – be it depression, schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, anorexia. Think about those people suffering from anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress, panic attacks and paranoia. Think about the people suffering from alzheimers and those who suffer psychosis.
And if you had a chance to ask their families or their pre-school teachers what they were like at 3 years of age ? Do you think all these mental illnesses could have been staved off had they had early intervention at age 3? Would these conditions even have shown their frightening path of devastation at 3 years old?
I genuinely don’t get this decision.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3uFUzCkq7E&w=640&h=390]
If you’ve watched that interview and can shed some light – I would love to know.
I just don’t get it
3? Wow.
My brother in Law smoked a lot of pot. At about 24 this came to a head. His father, my father in law, problems due to losing a lot of money, aged 58. Best friend, anxiety and depression, aged 20. Brother, losing a daughter, aged 37, depression.
I so want this money to be allocated to beds and more psychiatrists. To help people the minute they know something is up. And more awareness that these services are not only available but to take away the stigma. That it’s OK to say I’m not OK.
xx
Totally agree. Even my mental health at age 3 was pretty good.
Lana, you word so eloquently my thoughts. I know you know I’m in hospital at the moment after attempting my life twice last week – both times I should have been left either dead or brain damaged, but I am neither.
What happens if all this money on prevention doesn’t work? What happens if in 10 years all these 13 year olds start developing mental illness? Early intervention and prevention doesn’t help those who are considered “chronic” (and at 21, that is my less than charming label – chronic bulimic, chronic anxiety, chronic PTSD, chronic depression).
What about people like Lana’s brother and me and my mate who lives down the road with OCD. Because under this budget we get REDUCED access to care. A system that is already bad is getting much worse for those of us in it.
wishing you only love sweets. And strength
Ohhhh goodness. What I’m going to say is pretty predictable right about now.
NOTHING could have predicted that I would turn out to be a madwoman at age 3. By then, I had not yet seen my parents’ emotional and physical abuse towards each other, I had not yet been bullied at school, I had not yet experienced the alienation that my teenage years would forever haunt me with. Yep, I was a happy, giggling little bumblebee.
LOOK HOW WELL THAT TURNED OUT.
It does sound positively loopy doesn’t it? 3 years old? Perhaps they think that all mental illness begins with early childhood ADHD?
I know that there is a lot of work going on around early intervention, it’s my line of work. The theory being that if you “fix” things up early you reduce the number of people with chronic/certain types of mental illness down the track. Time is the only way to see if this will pay off.
That said, I wish there were more inpatient mental health beds/facilities and that there were more group homes for those with a chronic illness, in need of support. That’s my 2 cents anyway.
Time and the hope that those people who most need the assessment will get it. I worry that children who may have been subjected to drugs in utero, the children who are subject to abuse and neglect who may benefit most from early intervention just wont get it. Pouring millions of dollars into assessing the people who choose to get assessed just seems , I don’t know? Odd
I just worry so much about all the people who are in the midst of suffering from an acute mental illness because where early intervention is your line of work – acute mental illness is my day to day reality
It is heart-wrenching to read the comments here, about what people have endured and are enduring in their lives, and I do believe there definitely needs to be a better system of support for people with mental health issues. At the same time, as a Kindy/Pre-Primary teacher, I can say, without doubt, that when children walk into the classroom at age three I can tell if they are going to have issues with anxiety and socialising as an adult, because they have them at 3.
What I think should be done is to work out exactly what you have to do to help these children and let everyone know the process. The problem is that only the specialists know what to do, and parents and teachers are still relatively oblivious as to how to help. Same goes for speech and language intervention, fine and gross motor issues and general developmental delay. Parents and teachers try to work out what to do, but we don’t have nearly enough infomation. Do we seriously have to train as psychologists and therapists to know the answers?
Here’s the full break-down on the mental health allocation in the budget
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/croakey/2011/05/10/overview-of-the-budgets-mental-health-announcements-and-some-preliminary-reaction/
and an overview of the reaction:
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/croakey/2011/05/11/a-comprehensive-analysis-of-the-budgets-mental-health-announcements/
I think that this interview focussed on the early intervention stuff because that’s what Tony Jones decided to clarify, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the bulk of the funding is going towards early intervention. And “early intervention” in this case means 0-12 years, which includes but is not limited to 3-year-olds.
That said, there is a great deal of scientific evidence that our brain development in the first three years of life is crucial to our mental health – this would be especially so for those who are genetically pre-disposed to mental illness. The symptoms of mental illness may not become obvious until years later, but as has already been commented, for those knowing what to look for, the signs are often there at a young age. Of course there are other factors at play that emerge as time goes by, and these need to be effectively dealt with as well. It’s not an either/or. I would also suggest that depending on your circle of family/friends/acquaintances, you may be identifying with people for whom life experiences or genetics have caused their illness despite having the best possible care and management as infants/young children. But for many, many kids at risk out there, this is not the case. They may have genetic predisposition, life circumstances AS WELL AS poor-quality care at a young age which is further reducing their chances of wellness. Surely these kids (and their parents) deserve help if its available.
Here is another link to the Australian Association of Infant Mental Health which states on its home page that infancy is a critical time for psycho-social development. http://www.aaimhi.org/
This is a very well-documented and researched field of study. Our early childhood experiences hard wire our brains into reacting the way we do – the neural pathways are laid down that partly determine the stress response we will have for the rest of our lives. Those with serious mental illness feel it all the more strongly.
I so get what you are saying Sarah and I understand they are looking at ages 0-12 but the actual “mental health assessment” is done at age 3.
BUT if testing at age 3 is voluntary I believe that many of the people who will benefit from it wont be getting it. I think there are thousands of children that are being abused daily that are not getting the care that they need from the government – to put more strain on childhood services seems absurd.
I have a sister who works in aged care – looking after the families and sufferers of dementia and alzheimers. They need help now, they need funding even if their grand kids are being assessed
I have a brother in law who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia – possibly drug induced. Possibly there were signs at 3 but I am not sure . He is 40 now and had no access to long term care.
I know too many people who suffer from stress, panic attack and severe anxiety – caused by events in their lives. I just don’t see the services for them being extended – I do see that the amount of psychologist visits they provide have been capped so that there can be assessments of 3 year olds that may or may not have mental health issues.
Interesting times indeed and no reprieve for people suffering day to day from acute mental illness (well at least in this family) and it’s with that in mind that I struggle to see the sense of every 3 year old having a mental health assessment. Especially because I worry that those people most in jeopardy may miss out on the testing altogether
I really get where you are coming from too Lana – it’s frustrating that there is so much more that needs to be done in so many areas, and if I understand you correctly you are saying there are more urgent places the funds should be allocated rather than assessing 3-year-olds. But, playing devils advocate here again, I’m not sure that it’s as clear-cut as that. From what I understand they are proposing that a mental health assessment be added on to the existing checks that are done at age 4 before starting school – eyesight, hearing, etc – and I see mental health as being as important a check as any of those other physical things, and wouldn’t expect parents to wait until their children were older and started displaying symptoms of hearing loss, for example, before they were checked, so the same goes for mental health, it’s just bringing it in line with the other checks. Yes it’s voluntary but that’s just the same as the other tests too – at least it’s available to all parents and children.
As for the psychological visits being capped, I think it’s just from 12 visits to 10 – and that GPs will be given a lesser rebate for filling in the mental health care plan under the opinion that they’ve been basically overpaid for that task to date. Not sure whether I agree with this particular argument – I think capping psychological visits is going in the wrong direction and my experience is that it’s too hard to get access to these services as it is – I have found GPs reluctant at the best of times and also I don’t think 12 visits per year is enough. But I’m still not going to go the extra step and say that the early intervention shouldn’t be happening. From what I can see the early intervention funding will take up a small percentage of the overall funding, alongside a whole range of other initiatives like one point of care for all the needs of people with severe mental illness – it remains to be seen how effective these will be and it seems like a drop in the bucket compared to what’s needed. Did you have a look at the link and see the explanation of all the different services being funded? I’m not sure if your brother in law will be covered by any of those and I confess I am not up to speed on what they all involve, but it’s a lot more than just the early intervention program.
But all in all it seems like a step forward compared with what other governments have been prepared to do. I know that’s frustrating when it’s still not enough. I do speak from some experience as people close to me have been desperately in need of assistance that has not been forthcoming from the system too. Maybe with the National Mental Health Commission and consumer representative body in place, some of the useless bureaucracy can be cut through to get real support to those in need.
I qualified as a psychotherapist late in my life. And I practised for 2 years. I am so disillusioned by the mental health in Australia that I have stopped practising to write. I am passionate about informing the community about the benefits of psychotherapy. People suffering mentally are excluded from society. I must say that psychotherapists are also excluded from the mental health system . They push the psychology model whilst I, the psychotherapy model based on Freudian concepts. A talking model that doesn’t pretend to cure or change people but accept them as they are and talk with them on a weekly basis about what is troubling them. The trouble is that talking therapies by qualified psychotherapists are not subsidised by the mental heath system. And if a 3 year old has mental health issues, which I doubt, then look to the parents.
I was excited when I first heard there would be money for mental health, but now I’m completely confused.
It needs to go to the areas where it will do the most good – care facilities and staff and services in general, not on someone’s hair brained idea.
Early intervention to me means help for pre schoolers who have autism, aspbergers, developmental delays etc. It has been shown that the earlier you diagnose these syndromes the better it is for children later.