Mental Health Mental Health Services

[Z-girl]

I just watched a tv show about depression in Ireland - people's stories, the way it is treated here (often stigmatized), the ways in which people deal with it and also the mental health services here.

I suffered with depression for about five years and would now consider myself to be recovered - I am off my anti-depressants a year this month and haven't had a depressive episode in about 18 months. But watching this show made me think about everyone suffering with it at the moment and how they are dealing with it.

Which leads me to my question - where do you live and what are the mental health services like in your area? Do you have community support? Hospital support? No support? Or what?

 

[plmar]

Which leads me to my question - where do you live and what are the mental health services like in your area? Do you have community support? Hospital support? No support? Or what?

We have the NHS but I can't imagine how they would help.

 

[herbavore]

I live in California and the mental health services here are dismal. The budget has been cut and cut and cut again until there is nothing left to cut. I have many friends that work in Mental Health. They went into it knowing it would not be a great living but usually because someone close to them was affected by mental illness and they wanted to be in a field that helped. One of my friends has the job of hooking up homeless people with mental illness with housing. She said it is beyond humiliating, it is heartbreaking, because just about every place she used to try to place clients is now closed due to lack of funds.

You need insurance here to pay for mental health services. The costs are staggering and the insurance companies don't want to include them, as if it is any different to have an illness of the body or an illness of the mind.

If you suffer from both addiction and mental illness (dual diagnosis) no one wants to treat you.

I cannot imagine a worse system than the one in America, though being on Bluelight and meeting people from England has shown me that NHS isn't as great as I thought it was from the outside.

Aussies, what do you think of your mental health system? How about in the Scandinavian countries? I'm interested to hear about this as well as it an issue that I care about very much.