Listen to families, mum urges

‘‘We count our blessings every day that she is still alive.’’ West Coast DHB member Michelle Lomax

A Canterbury mother hopes to tell a Government mental health inquiry today about her daughter’s battle which has included treatment with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and the psychedelic drug ketamine.

West Coast District Health Board member Michelle Lomax wants to share her experience of supporting her adult daughter through a major depressive disorder to help improve services.

She intends to speak at the Government’s mental health inquiry panel forum in Christchurch.

One of Lomax’s daughters, who did not want to be named, was first diagnosed with a major depressive disorder after she tried to commit suicide aged 18.

She has been treated at adult inpatient psychiatric units in Wellington and Dunedin for various periods of time since then.

Lomax has written a submission to the inquiry about being ‘‘left out in the cold’’ by a mental health system not ‘‘set up to recognise that families – in most cases, and especially where they are willing – are an important part of the team’’.

While evidence showed people had better outcomes with treatment when they had family support, often families did not feel included ‘‘as an equal part of the team, to assist the person with a chronic mental illness to live their best possible life’’, Lomax said in her submission.

The most recent Director of Mental Health report for 2016 found family/whanau consultation only happened around 60 per cent of the time in mental health services.

Lomax said mental health illness needed to be treated ‘‘within the unwell person’s social context, which more often than not puts the family at the centre of their care’’.

When her daughter was in a locked inpatient unit, she made numerous suicide attempts and escapes.

On one occasion staff let her take 30 minutes unaccompanied leave from the unit, against the family’s wishes.

When she did not return her father went looking and found her as she was about to attempt suicide.

‘‘We count our blessings every day that she is still alive, although that was not necessarily because of good management,’’ Lomax wrote in her submission.

Lomax said there was no follow up to review what had happened after the incident.

Staff often cited the Privacy Act 1993 as a reason not to provide information about her daughter’s condition or

treatment. At the start of her first admission, soon after turning 18 and suffering psychosis, family were repeatedly told they could not have input into her care.

‘‘I felt that privacy was being used as a means of obstruction, which was not for the benefit of the unwell person and caused unnecessary stress to the family.’’

Opportunities to complain were inadequate, Lomax said.

When another patient who assaulted her daughter was not moved to a de-escalation area, Lomax complained but says staff responded by severely restricting her visits to the ward.

‘‘It felt like a punishment for bad behaviour because I challenged the decision of the nursing team on the night she was assaulted.’’

Lomax said there was not enough support for staff who really cared about their patients, and a lack of accountability for a minority of staff ‘‘who are less than ideal’’.

The Christchurch mental health inquiry panel forum will be held at the Christ Church Transitional Cathedral from 5pm to 6.30pm today.