How bad is Australia's psychiatry problem ?

I notice many people from Australia are posting about these CTOs or "Community Treatment Orders" .

How do you quantify "bad"?
I'd say psychiatric treatment in Australia is better than in many of our Asian neighbours. After hearing how schizophrenics are treated in rural Indonesia and India, I think it's hard to complain about conditions here! Still, I'm sure there's plenty of room for improvement in Oz.

Platypus wrote:How do you quantify "bad"?

Good question,

I guess bad is coerced/forced unwanted psychiatry but also how much is it a part of the culture ?

In the USA even our schools have become DSM based "behavior health clinics" with pushes to screen every child for one of there labels and the drugs that go with it of course.

People when speaking say "my brain tells me" and things like that cause "shrink culture" is everywhere.

I've never been referred to a psychiatrist or prescribed medication despite hoping for one or both outcomes at times. My experience has been that there is a preference for counselling/talk therapy, but maybe that's more to do with the nature of my symptoms.

However, I'm sure there are horror stories here as there are elsewhere.
I suspect there are problems with a lack of suitable treatment options, especially for patients who have both substance abuse and mental health issues, or for those in disadvantaged communities such as Indigenous Australians.

I did have a billing problem where a psychologist referred my unpaid account to debt collection lawyers, who threatened me with legal action, even though I was not meant to pay and she had simply forgotten to ask me to sign a form that would have released payment to her. But I suppose that has nothing to do with the problems you're asking about.

I think austtralias psychiatry problem is just as bad as it is in the US, obviously there aren't as many ppl here , but the percentage of ppl affected is the same.

As was I;n the video that I postred before, in aust they don't have a judge who u see after 2 days, ;its just the word of one psychiatrist who says u stay or go in the 'hosptial'. that one psych can label u, force medicate u, and basically anything he says goes, he dosnt have to give 'proof' its just his opinion. 0.5% ppl being put on a CTO, have legal representation, its usually just u, the psych and a nurse or 2.

There are plenty of horror stories from Australian psychiatry.

The one thing there is not is psych survivor organisations.

Ive only found 2, The vanaheim organization, and the schizophrenia drug free crisis line (Maureen B Roberts). These 2 org;s are not in my state so I cant tell u what thyre like but they look good from their websites.

psychiatry has the police in their hands dragging refusing patients to hospital, no legal right to refuse medication...

our Mental Health Act is changing, still don't know how much better it will be...I got a copy of the old one and there is sttuff in there about informed consent, but they must just skip that part and focus on involuntary orders...trying to figure out in how its worded what rights I have to dispute the criteria for involuntary treatment maybe i should writ it down but the criteria ll relate to refusing treatment and ability to consent, which they take away easy enough through opinions, its all about the medicattion...I should read it again! its some 200plus pages, hope the new one is better, apparently it focus's on least restrictive treatment.

-- Sat Jul 20, 2013 12:59 pm --

this is in victoria but think that really the menatl health act supposedly supposed to uphold rights of the patients, its purpose is more to legally treat involuctary for mental health....and again its just a matter of a psychiatrist claiming thatt treatment is necessary.....Don't know about anyone else but I can't take their word for anything, what supporting evidence to excuse to put someone on a CTO..mine just got renewed thats why I waited and avoided them until I started feeling light and love again, then the police nabbed me broke into my home..

same as america probably, but I suspect pharma has more power in america to like advertise etc, biggest market their for psych drugs...australia psychiatry has still go into peoples homes when it comes to crisis, depends on the family that wants to commit you, maybe the education of mfamily about "mental Health" is about the same except you guys have NAMI we probably have an equivalent or we borrow stuff from overseas in our metnal health system...it sux and I am going to sue them for incompetence and discrimination etc.

Devilock wrote:I think austtralias psychiatry problem is just as bad as it is in the US, obviously there aren't as many ppl here , but the percentage of ppl affected is the same.

I looked up the number of psychiatrists per capita and was surprised to read that Australia and the US have almost the same rates (14.5 vs 15.0 psychiatrists per 100,0000 population, both of which are below the OECD average.) I expected the US to have a lot more psychiatrists, maybe due to a cultural stereotype I have.

this is how it currently stads in victoria, I doubt conditions will change that much...I think most countries have similar protocol.

"The criteria for the involuntary treatment of a
person under this Act are that—
(a) the person appears to be mentally ill; and
(b) the person's mental illness requires
immediate treatment and that treatment can
be obtained by the person being subject to an
involuntary treatment order; and
(c) because of the person's mental illness,
involuntary treatment of the person is
necessary for his or her health or safety
(whether to prevent a deterioration in the
person's physical or mental condition or
otherwise) or for the protection of members
of the public; and
(d) the person has refused or is unable to consent
to the necessary treatment for the mental
illness; and
(e) the person cannot receive adequate treatment
for the mental illness in a manner less
restrictive of his or her freedom of decision
and action.
Note
In considering whether a person has refused or is unable to consent see section 3A"
section 3A is total nonsense and the real section about informed consent is elsewhere.

This is where it really counts coz it also says
"(1A) Subject to subsection (2), a person is mentally ill
if he or she has a mental illness, being a medical
condition that is characterised by a significant
disturbance of thought, mood, perception or
memory.
(2) A person is not to be considered to be mentally ill
by reason only of any one or more of the
following—
(a) that the person expresses or refuses or fails
to express a particular political opinion or
belief;
(b) that the person expresses or refuses or fails
to express a particular religious opinion or
belief;
(c) that the person expresses or refuses or fails
to express a particular philosophy;
(d) that the person expresses or refuses or fails
to express a particular sexual preference or
sexual orientation;
(e) that the person engages in or refuses or fails
to engage in a particular political activity;
(f) that the person engages in or refuses or fails
to engage in a particular religious activity;
(g) that the person engages in sexual
promiscuity;
(h) that the person engages in immoral conduct;
(i) that the person engages in illegal conduct;
(j) that the person is intellectually disabled;
(k) that the person takes drugs or alcohol;
(l) that the person has an antisocial personality;
(m) that the person has a particular economic or
social status or is a member of a particular
cultural or racial group.
"

couldn''t the experience of psychosis be protected by some religion like shamanism and mysticism, these people need to be trained in freeing from illusions of the mind in mediations or more importantly just catching up on sleep.

It could be argued that psychiatry is a religious belief and we have the right not to believe their doctrines or partake in lifestyle alteration of use of their toxic drugs...they impose a religious doctrine and most people refuse, this doesnt make them ill but thats how it stands for refusing is made out to be other symptoms or explaining how one has the task of revoery up to standard is based on a rligious belif that superseeds psychiatry understanding of the universe, for psychosis is transformaitive episode, or transcendence..religious exhaltation and dealing with archetypal pressure of society belief system...psychotics stand alone and should be treated for their anthropological endeavers of transcendence and having visions etc all part of a religious doctrine
.

aactually heard a place copycat might have found on the church of schizophrenia, thats kinda what I am getting at but making it more legit to find my own life diretion according to esoteric cosmology.

-- Sat Jul 20, 2013 1:25 pm --

if somebody was able to rouse positive stigma for schizophrenics and arrived at being a social or cultural group and well documented in medical literature the eistance of such cultural group for schizop-hrenics if they wished to join to fully nurture their talents and latent psychic abilities etc that people are generally scared about and like to cast out telepathically tuned people....or they are dealing with other beings..had in a dream or I read somewhere that astral beings are real, if not for creations of the mental plane of our own or eternally existing creations and beings that exist in the astral, some say that mortals are destined to exist in this realm or even higher to spiritual realms.

Like set it up to force people into this alternate therapy of entering into our own cultural group..forced to engage in breathing exercises like another member is promoting in thread about happiness or something....forced to read doctrines, or if they choose to read the scriptures and have a variety of other rleigious material on hand, jungian psychotherapy...jung was a mystic and even had psychotic episode depicted in the red book.

Maybe we all need to learn of finland with open dialogue community treatmenet and family intervention for someone going through "psychosis" and peoplle recover and the hospitals are empty....wish australia really was the lucky country or safe refuge for visionaries....maybe its the illumiatre or whatever it is that keeps mental health so powerful to create illness...it is a spiritual intellignece and they worship something, the medical model...so as I said the conditions for detecting someone with a mental illness basred on refusal to obey psychiatric doctrines is not a sign of mental illness...it has to be granted that this religious conflict resonates at a deeper level and arrives at most of the symptoms the quacks would gather about someones behaviour in thata environmnet being forced with false doctrines about the reality of the universe...they serve uswith unreality and a notion its all about a mental illness...refusing to adapt to this environment is all they got against me currently to say I am mentlayy ill...