Fighting for help

You’re trying to stop the cycle. So the funding to stop that cycle of getting worse needs to be put in place. Kelly Stoddard

Kelly Stoddard, 39, finally fell pregnant with her first child last year but it wasn’t the happy experience she imagined.

Near the end of her pregnancy she started to feel anxious and down and after the birth of her son, Jett, things only got worse.

She was constantly crying, often struggled to find motivation to do anything, was anxious about looking after her son and found herself shouting at the infant on a couple of occasions.

About five weeks after Jett was born, Stoddard’s midwife told her she thought she had post-natal depression and sent her to the GP for a referral to Maternal Mental Health.

She got a call from Maternal Mental Health to assess her situation but didn’t hear back.

When she chased them, Stoddard was told her situation was not severe enough to qualify for help.

She couldn’t afford to pay for help herself so continued to struggle through, slowly getting worse.

Eventually she went back to her doctor who referred her again and convinced her to accept a prescription for anti-depressants.

Despite her desire to avoid drugs she caved in when she was again told again she was not high-risk enough for public treatment.

The drugs helped but Stoddard said she was only just getting by.

“He’s a much-wanted baby. It just saddens me that I couldn’t enjoy him for the first three or four months.”

It was ridiculous there was no help available until people got to the stage where they were considering harming themselves or others, when earlier intervention could prevent that, she said.

“It’s really disappointing that people have to get to that level before they are listened to.”

The North Shore woman, who had counselling for depression about five years ago, is adamant therapy of some sort would have helped.

She said the Government had not put enough money into mentalhealth services and the extra funding proposed by many parties was the only way to make sure everyone got help regardless of the severity of their illness. “You’re trying to stop the cycle. So the funding to stop that cycle of getting worse needs to be put in place.”