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One night I went into the emergency department with a mental health caused injury. The doctors and nurses judged me and didn’t listen to my whole story. No one asked me why I was there or asked if I needed help. It took me a while to come back and trust anyone like that again. Then, a lot later, I saw my psychologist and I just realised that some people are really bright, but they don’t have an idea of what things really are like. They assume a lot. The psychologist was different. She didn’t assume things and agreed that what had happened to me and the way people had treated me in the past was really bad. She had the perspective that there is more to a person than what is in a book, and everyone is different. She made me realise that my negative experience wasn’t my fault. It was good that she made me talk about it, but in a nice way and for her to tell me not to feel guilty about my experiences. I felt like I could begin to trust her and later other health professionals too. When you have pain conditions, there is a lot of ignorance and lack of knowledge in health professionals. The way that she was different was that she knew and she realised that everyone is individual in their needs. She listened to me and my perspective. I think that there should be more education for medical professionals in emergency departments. Even if it was just one lesson for them to see that there is more to a person in that emergency room, more to those people who come in with a mental health caused injury… that’s how they could improve.
The ALIVE National Centre is funded by the NHMRC Special Initiative in Mental Health.
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The ALIVE National Centre for Mental Health Research Translation is funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Special Initiative in Mental Health GNT2002047.
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