Counselling For Sexual Abuse And Childhood Abuse Survivors

[sun seeker]

do you have any funding for psychologists via the health service?

Not that I know of. Psychiatrists are covered, "mental health workers", whatever that means, are covered, but whether any of them are psychologists... I don't think so. To get access to a psychiatrist you could begin either with a GP or a mental health worker.

How do you get access to CBT for trauma?

You don't as far as I know, aside from the element of CBT training that most therapists have. But I've never specifically sought this out.

I'm feeling a little out of my depth here. If anyone who knows more reads this, feel free to chime in and correct me on any of this!

 

[sun seeker]

I'm just realizing I was wrong about CBT, now I think about it some more. There was a series of articles in the local paper recently about mental health issues. It really got to me because of the emphasis on public education on available services and destigmatizing "getting help", and the articles completely ignored (of course) the frequent failure of that "help" once it is accessed. It had me ranting to myself several times as I used the newspapers to get my fire started. :) But I mention the articles because unless I am remembering wrong, I do recall CBT being mentioned as the treatment of choice for OCD. Therefore, I surmise that it is available somewhere in the region.

I'm realizing as I try to answer these questions how much there is I don't know.

 

[shell]

Can you imagine a GP treating you for complex trauma?

That is so scary, it's laughable.

I find it insulting enough that I had to pay $80 out of pocket to the doctor to get the referral for the 10 sessions in the first place, from a doctor that has seen me for 5 years consectively who sits there shaking his head at me, writes that I don't wish to discuss it with him, even though he never asked me as he already knows I have PTSD, then charging me and the Australian people for the right to even have those sessions at the excessive rate of $180 per 20 minutes as I had to have an extended session to answer the questions that were answerable in less than 10 minutes, and shunted me out the door after less than 10min, telling me to come back to get a further referral for the additional 4 sessions after I have finished the 6,and I only get $70.00 rebate per psych session). So in effect I got 9 sessions per year as I lost one sessions rebate, paying the doctor to get the sessions in the first place. This system is truly a joke.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

That's crazy that you can see a psychiatrist almost every week of the year! Somehow that's gotta relate to the power of big pharma! Its sad that our health world now revolves around medication....Well, in Australia from what I can see, and in America, based on my own experience and observation. It seems like its a two (or more) fold problem in that on one side you have big pharma pushing pills for anything and everything, and on the other side you have patients who want to pop a pill once a day instead of making healthy choices like eating properly and exercising. (Well, I say that in general, not as related to psychiatry specifically because many do indeed need medication to function and I don't mean to insinuate that diet and exercise can fix all mental illness.)

I watched a documentary recently about how drug companies are making drugs to fix what is actually a normal part of human existence. Ok, so perhaps there was a bit of spin on this documentary, but at the same time....a drug company releases a new drug, advertises it like crazy, people say "hey, I think I have that problem!" so they go to their doctor and ask for that drug, and voila! the drug company makes big bucks! I think one of the examples was "low T" or low testosterone, but the truth is that testosterone naturally declines with age....uhm, sort of why men are at their sexual peak so young and it declines from there. But of course these commercials come out pretty much saying "are you not as frisky as you used to be!?! You might have low T!" And guys freak out, go to their doc, and get this drug that boosts testosterone. So yes, we are a society that has been programmed to be drug seeking when any little thing goes wrong....and with the financial power of the drug industry, its no wonder that therapy isn't covered to the extent that psychiatry is.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

An art therapist to treat trauma, that is just so wacky.

Actually, Shepard Pratt in Baltimore, MD, USA has two art therapists on staff in their trauma unit (was there for a total of 2 months), and Intensive Trauma Therapy in Morgantown, WV, USA was founded by a husband and wife team, he is a psychiatrist and she is an art therapist. Art therapy was a major part of my work there, too. (I did the bulk of my processing at ITT.)

I also tried to do art therapy on an outpatient basis, but couldn't afford to see more than one therapist at a time. She worked with trauma patients.

Now I'm thinking about finding an art therapist....

 

[Mit]

I've just finished 6 sessions with a therapist through the NHS. That's the max I'm allowed. I can self refer again after three months and maybe get another 6. After that it ends, no more. I probably spent the first four sessions gradually telling her what happened in my childhood and more recent traumas. The last two she tried to focus on techniques for coping and improving my thinking. Throughout all sessions the need to get on with some practical help was evident, the therapist was very good but under pressure to try and give me practical help and not just listen to my sad tale. At the last session she said if I self refer in three months and am accepted it would be best to focus on solutions, not keep going over the past (my words). Throughout the six sessions I felt constantly aware of how little time we had and pressured by it. It's an incredibly stupid arrangement that could do more harm to some than good. The therapist was sufficiently concerned about the limited time that she tried to refer me to the CMHT but they said they didn't think I was ill enough and the waiting time was one year. The therapist is writing to my gp to try and persuade him to support my 're admission in six weeks instead of three months. We shall just have to wait and see what happens, but it's left me feeling upset. The therapist was great, the system here is crap!

 

[Queen Boudica]

then charging me and the Australian people for the right to even have those sessions at the excessive rate of $180 per 20 minutes as I had to have an extended session to answer the questions that were answerable in less than 10 minutes,.

That is wrong. Your GP shouldn't be charging you a double session. That is for when the mental health care plan is initially set up. Every time you go after that they are writing a referral so it shouldn't be a double session. And that is ripping off Medicare. If the GP takes 10 minutes and he is charging for 20 minutes it is fraud and they should be prosecuted.

Yes the whole thing about having to go to a GP who has no understanding of mental health care and they are the ones who decide whether you get the pathetic 10 sessions a year and the fact that you have to go for 6 and then again for 4 sessions, so in fact you are having to go 2x for a referral that should be valid for a year. It is absolute rip off. Any other medical condition you get a referral for a year and that is it. This system is so complicated that NO-ONE truly understands it. It creates loads of paperwork, loads of expense managing it and it is also leaving GPs and psychologists open to being penalised because the system is so complicated tracking referrals. And very few understand the requirements anyway. I mean who the hell gets better in 6 sessions? Yet you have to go back to your GP to feel humiliated and ask them for 4 more sessions and you know that that 4 more is not going to see you healed.

So whoever came up with this system in the first place is completely stupid. Who came up with the idea of having to go back to the GP after 6 sessions? It is just designed to humiliate people. It is reinforcing this message that mentally ill people are just imagining their problems and should get better quickly.

 

[greenleaf]

A lot of advocacy by professionals, activists, etc. here in the U.S. thankfully has resulted in some improved legislation over the years. The basic idea is:

Insurance shouldn't treat mental health differently than physical health.

Here is one link but I think there has been something more recent too:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_Health_Parity_Act

Then it was improved even more; there are other links... might be through the "regulations" that implement our legislation; Obama may have helped... in addition to thousands of advocates over decades.

http://www.cms.gov/CCIIO/Programs-and-Initiatives/Other-Insurance-Protections/mhpaea_factsheet.html

I think this approach is quite helpful, as it may be helping reduce stigma with mental health issues too.

 

[Queen Boudica]

But what is even more terrifying is the top spokesman for mental health in this country Professor Ian Hickie who was on the commission for this report is now campaigning to cut $1 billion from mental health hospital beds. Probably to fund his own programs. THis is wrong.

 

[DarkSideOfTheSoul]

@Lizio...I feel your frustration. It's daunting enough just to deal with PTSD daily. But then have to fight the system for what should be the right of every person, to have qualified mental health care..for as long as it's needed....it's ludicrous (among other swear words I can think of).

@sun seeker...you sound as if you're in eastern Canada. Where access to psychiatrists; if wanted; are available. It was readily available to me when I lived in Ont. I now live in the western-most part of BC. I've called everywhere to find a T for myself. Psychologists & psychiatrists are mostly in private practice...far beyond the monetary reach for me.
The remaining psychs work from our one mental health facility. It's a year or so wait list to see one on an out patient basis.
I am however, able to get 8 to 10 sessions with a clinical social worker through the Women's Sexual Assault Center. If one is not available, I'm able to see a 'specially-trained' volunteer at the center. Again, only for 8 to 10 sessions.
I have complex PTSD, panic disorder, anxiety disorder, along with my lengthy childhood abuse. I did suffer from DID until my late 20's. Thankfully, I lived in eastern Canada at that time, and found a wonderful shrink who put me back together again.

I've been 'having' to rely on my GP for meds to manage panic attacks, anxiety, and now am on Nabilone for my increasingly bad PTSD symptoms. I can't begin to explain my great trepidation, of having to rip open my wounds in 10 sessions, and walk away feeling okay about it. It's far from okay. Or as a former director of that one & only mental health facility stated, (after he hastily resigned after 2 short yrs...citing a severe lack of able staff for the thousands of patients seeking help)...'that the conditions resembled that of a third world country'.

I feel that, despite the growing need for proper mental health care; in so many countries, or parts of countries; that it's looked upon by the powers-that-wanna-be, to be dispensed like fast food.
I can't believe I live in this gorgeous country of Canada, and my serious health concerns lie in the hands of a social worker or a specially trained volunteer....in 8 to 10 sessions.
I'm terrified, to be honest. As I fear more harm than good can ever come of this.
I'm so sorry that you are having to go through this too.

 

[Queen Boudica]

I've been 'having' to rely on my GP for meds to manage panic attacks, anxiety, and now am on Nabilone for my increasingly bad PTSD symptoms. I can't begin to explain my great trepidation, of having to rip open my wounds in 10 sessions, and walk away feeling okay about it. It's far from okay. '

It's not Ok. And really I don't know whether I would recommend intensive trauma therapy in that time. Really all you can do is establish some kind of basic relationship and some kind of management skills. I don't think that is fair at all. All the psychologists I am talking to are saying 10 sessions for complex trauma is no way enough. It isn't right. I think protect yourself. But you can talk it over with the therapist and really need to make sure the match is right. Otherwise waste of time.

 

[Queen Boudica]

Anyway think I've made progress with the campaign. But really when the political advisor to the health minister is coming up with ignorant comments like if people don't go to psychologists it is because they can't be that ill. Hmmmm.

Tweeted today. Took on the big boy J M. Out of my depth. But I said it as it is. Mental health care in this country is completely underfunded. That the report was flawed because the constraint was to work within existing funding. That the existing funding is completely inadequate. That the groups representing mental health care are letting down sufferers by fighting amongst themselves to redirect funding and cut funds from one area to their area. That cutting funds from acute hospital care will cause more suffering and suicide. That the groups need to come together and tell the truth, that funding for mental health care is grossly underfunded compared to other areas of health and the economic loss and suffering and deaths in this country (greater than the annual road toll). That the time for playing politics is over.

He tried to deny that shifting funds from acute hospital care was cutting hospital care. Challenged me to find the quote in the report that said about cuts. He knows full well shifting funds is cuts to the area. Really, playing word games with someone who has just come out of an abusive marriage where she was gaslighted all the time and woken up to it. How pathetic. Luckily the better Access Guy, we have come more in agreement and he was backing me up. Think we are making a turning point. The campaign is about getting across the message that mental health care is critical and funds must be put into it to stop the huge economic toll and suicide and suffering.