A lived experience
I write in response to the letter from Father Peter MacLeod-Miller (‘System has let us down’, The Border Mail, February 10).
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
He states that we need the reintroduction of mental institutions to rectify the homeless problem. Firstly, I would like to point out that not all people who are homeless have become so because of mental illness. Secondly if you had knowledge or experience of mental institutions, you would not advocate for their return. These institutions were rife with mistreatment of the vulnerable.
I have been involved in mental health advocacy for nearly 20 years as a carer/consumer representative. I have supported a family member with mental illness for 22 years as well as having the honour of meeting and working with people who have direct experience of these institutions.
Many of these consumers would not be contributing to society in the way they now do if not for the closure of these places. I have been involved with service and policy development as well as developing service guidelines for various mental illnesses over this time and the overwhelming outcome of research and evidence-based practice is that institutionalisation holds back and or minimises recovery.
It has also been found that when people are appropriately supported in the community it leads to better outcomes. The problem is that there is not sufficient investment in providing adequate and appropriate interventions in the community based setting.
I have personal experience of this. We battled for 15 years to get the right intervention for my family member and as a last resort sought a service in Melbourne called Spectrum which has a program developed specifically for the type of mental illness of my family member. More was achieved in the two years from this service than from the previous 15 years.
Ours is not the only story of this nature and unfortunately there are too many stories of failed interventions.
Our public mental health system is crisis driven rather than early intervention focused. It is also exposed to political pressures between federal and state and are at times is very poorly administrated.
A good example of this is Albury services. This service had been allowed to degenerate in the last years before amalgamation with Wodonga which has led to Albury Wodonga Health trying to find funds to upgrade outdated facilities for community and inpatient clients in mental health.
Cuts to mental health funding will have the effect of actually costing more as, particularly, public services become more crisis focused which in turn will lead to heavier reliance on inpatient interventions. Investment in early intervention focused services will lead to less reliance on the more costly inpatient services.
I would never like to see a return to institutions – they are extremely costly and very counterproductive. Some current services and staff, both public and community, are providing great programs with very little and would like to do more but are having their hands tied by narrow funding models and or insufficient resources.
Fred Ford, Wodonga
Opportunity knocking
Come on Wodonga, here's a great opportunity to give the Junction area a boost, regardless of the stupid intersection.
Hopefully we will have lots of parking so people can actually come here and shop in our fabulous new shopping centre. As grey nomads we have lots of experience and see the need for council to cater for tourists.
There needs to be an area for caravans to park. Word of mouth goes a long way and you find on the road talking to others where to stay. Wodonga is not on the list.
Please don't miss this great opportunity to do proper parking, there are lots of open larger areas to use. I am sure our shop owners will agree and benefit from newcomers to our great city centre, as well as existing businesses.