Acceptance of one's mental illness is generally thought to be the starting point for one's Journey of Recovery. Once begun, there are three major milestones along the road to recovery, each to be achieved in turn. These are: 1) Functionality, 2) Wellness, and 3) Fulfillment.
Inci...
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provider stigma
DCROY9633
Saturday, November 29, 2008 at 10:21 PM
Yes, there is a kind of insidious stigma that can seep into the practice of providers. I think one form of this stigma is assuming the patient is not able to understand the finer points of diagnosis and treatment, and proceeding to simply act alone as provider to patient rather than provider with patient. This is exactly what my psychiatrist did/does. My therapist, on the other hand, reiterated every few sessions that we were a team, both pulling my load together.
Also, although I have come a long, long way since first diagnosed and although I suffered a great deal in a variety of ways, my psychiatrist has yet to ever allow himself to be engaged in a discussion of how to overcome that suffering any way except through medication. He has referred me to inpatient and outpatient treatment, but he has never spoken to me about what I could expect to achieve there. It is as if I were on the planet Schizophrenia orbiting around him and every 3 months I swing close enough for him to acknowledge with a written prescription and then I am out into orbit again. Alone. Stuck in this elliptical path. He could do so much good by asking how I am doing socially, by being willing to address my anxiety. But no, he is on one side of the desk and I am on the other and never the twain shall meet. I get sick of it sometimes.
This is just my personal soap box rant, I guess. Sometimes I just get tired of being patronized.
Carolyn
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1) Acceptance 2) Provider Stigma
Don Fraser
Sunday, November 30, 2008 at 02:59 AM
Hi Robin, thanks for the great blog. To address number one, there is one part of acceptance that you may have overlooked and that is, medical. When you break your leg, you can accept it, it's easy. But the mind cannot or willnot , with many people , look at itself and say "Mind, there's something wrong with you " Do you see what I'm driving at ? In short , the mind will not recognize it's own illness, because of it's own natural state.
Number two: A friend of mine (we'll call Jim) has been verbally abused by his mental health worker. This kind of thing happens here in the system and nothing has been done because the patients don't have an advocate in the community. We're full of glamour here. We like to put a pretty face on Mental Health BC but it is a popular field and with more mental health workers out there with dubious training there are going to be more cases like Jim's.
Have a great day !
Don Fraser
Yes, there is a kind of insidious stigma that can seep into the practice of providers. I think one form of this stigma is assuming the patient is not able to understand the finer points of diagnosis and treatment, and proceeding to simply act alone as provider to patient rather than provider with patient. This is exactly what my psychiatrist did/does. My therapist, on the other hand, reiterated every few sessions that we were a team, both pulling my load together.
Also, although I have come a long, long way since first diagnosed and although I suffered a great deal in a variety of ways, my psychiatrist has yet to ever allow himself to be engaged in a discussion of how to overcome that suffering any way except through medication. He has referred me to inpatient and outpatient treatment, but he has never spoken to me about what I could expect to achieve there. It is as if I were on the planet Schizophrenia orbiting around him and every 3 months I swing close enough for him to acknowledge with a written prescription and then I am out into orbit again. Alone. Stuck in this elliptical path. He could do so much good by asking how I am doing socially, by being willing to address my anxiety. But no, he is on one side of the desk and I am on the other and never the twain shall meet. I get sick of it sometimes.
This is just my personal soap box rant, I guess. Sometimes I just get tired of being patronized.
Carolyn