Mother feels mental health system failed her son

The Royal Commission will work to deliver recommendations that improve outcomes for people who experience mental illness.

A Victorian Auditor General’s Office report released last week reinforced the urgent need for change, particularly for vulnerable young people in regional areas.

One of the VAGO recommendations is to establish and implement a consistent service response for people under 25 needing “crisis or specialised support beyond.”

Kate (not her real name) couldn’t agree more. In the past few years she has watched her son’s depression as a teenager spiral out of control to suicidal thoughts and a psychotic breakdown.

Kate just wants her son back. Instead, she battles every day in a system that she says, failed her son, and her.

Since Dane’s “psychotic episode” 12 months ago, there has been no pathway or plan for ongoing care.

“He is an adult, he is a total recluse and he is delusional. I just have to wait now for it to get bad enough again that he is deemed a danger.

“He still isn’t well but what can we do about it. He thinks he is normal.

“The system has failed us. It was just a matter of tick the boxes and it’s another case off the books,” she said.

Looking back, Kate knows Dane was struggling with depression from about 13-years-old.

She watched him spiralling downwards and by the time he was 19 he had left school and had no job.

Kate was concerned about suicidal behaviour as his state of mind deteriorated. He began using drugs and spent a few weeks living on the streets.

Dane was at his lowest and most vulnerable when he became involved in the Church of Wells, an American religious group.

But it wasn’t the answer to his mental health problems. Dane ended up admitted to a Queensland psychiatric unit.

After five days he turned to his mother. “He was scared and came to me for help.”

Dane ended up living in Melbourne where Kate says, he was living in a zombie state and out of control.

Kate was thankful when the police called in a CAT (Crisis Assessment and Treatment) Team and she hoped Dane would finally get the care he needed.

She watched her son spend seven weeks in a high dependency unit at The Alfred Hospital, at times strapped to a bed and in a highly medicated stated.

“It was horrible. He was in a unit where they all walked the same, talked the same and had no facial expression.

“He was released to me after seven weeks and no follow up care or counselling, just a case worker and medication.

Under the Mental Health Act, Kate said Dane could be medicated but could not be forced to participate in counselling – “which is ridiculous because drugs aren’t going to fix the problem.”

After his release, Dane’s first appointment with his case manager was, as Kate said, a disaster.

“She looked at him and said `this is your life from now on.’

“Where is the positivity in that. We were all trying so hard to be positive and that just dragged us down.

A new case manager was appointed who checked on Dane every two weeks.

“He would walk in and say, how are you today, are you feeling suicidal.

“Dane would say, I’m good, no I don’t…and that was it – fortnightly, two minute visits and every six weeks we would see the psychiatrist in Melbourne,” Kate said.

Dane’s medication was gradually reduced until he was taken off it.

Twelve months later, Kate still battles daily. Medication has not fixed her son, all it did was sedate him.

“Drugs are overused. Treatment needs to be a combination of drugs and therapy or counselling.

“We needed a team of carers, it only needed to be one person for him to connect with and it could have changed his outcome,” Kate said.