Sarah

No, I am not ignorant, I have researched this subject widely.

Yes, mental illness has always been around and those suffering from it in the past would have been just as likely to have had blood-sugar problems as those suffering from it today. It is the resulting chemical imbalance in the brain that sets up the conditions for mental health problems.

Stress and trauma contribute but are not the only factors. Some people face enormous pressures in their lives and yet keep their mental health, while others develop problems even though their lives are not all that stressful.

Hi Sarah10

Can you give posters to this site some ideas about the lobby group you propose, vis a vis:

* The target group
* Philosophical framework
* Terms of reference
* Aims/goals and objectives
* Strategies
* Predicted outcomes ?

If you can answer these questions I may be interested.

Cheers and good luck in your quest
Kay

With the Howard Government heading for a $17 Billion budget surplus, why won't they do something for those of us suffering mental health. Personally I have Chronic Depression, Generalised Anxiety, Obsessive compulsive Disorder, Agrophobia [fear of open spaces] to name a few, have seen a Psyc once in the last 6 months, as no appointments available.

When will this Government train more doctor's what does it take. We have a world wide doctor shortage, world wide nursing shortage, and a Government with $17 Billion in the bank, I am at a loss as to how to compherend this...

Yes Winston, it is a communist plot...

I have experienced mental illness in my family of birth, married a man with mental illness and then my daughter developed it also. The devastation it causes is unbelievable.

For me the first problem was that the illnesses were unrecognised. Despite generations of mental illness in my family anyone with a mental illness no matter how extreme were treated as though they should straighten themselves out-as if they could. This is despite extreme delusions, hallucination, panic attacks, violence, eating disorders, inability to hold jobs or study, suicide, etc. I did not know what I was dealing with until after I left my husband in fear of my life because of his violence and insistence I was possessed by evil spirits. Then I started looking at mental illness-I should have looked much earlier. Since then the truth has left me wondering how could my family and myself been so incredibly ignorant?

When I started saying this was mental illness the amount of flak that I wore from everyone around me, my birth family, my husband and his family and from friends was unbelievable-saying someone is mentally ill is a very brave thing to do. When Jeff Kennett suggested Mark Latham might have Bipolar Disorder everyone was outraged. Why? If he said Mark Latham had heart problems someone might have commented that he wasn't a doctor so shouldn't speak but not the outrage. Differential diagnosis for Bipolar Disorder is Pancreatic Cancer. Is Pancreatitis so different? Is it so impossible?

If mental illness is such a dirty word it provokes this kind of reaction-then many wont even get to the point where they can even ask for help. It is not just the patient who gets destroyed, the family does as well.

I just wanted to express my support for this article. My mother has acute schizophrenia and over the years we too have found experiences with Crisis Assessment Teams a thorough waste of time. The way things stand now, my family has been left to pinball from crisis to crisis. A failure to recognise that she is ill is a symptom of her illness, yet the State treats the fact that she suffers from extreme delusions, lives in constant fear and persecution as a 'choice'. We have tried again and again to get intervention, but the only time we received help was once she crossed the threshold to become a 'danger', in which case she is sent to hospital for a few days, put on medication that she quits taking as soon as she gets home, with her symptoms worse and her paranoia reinforced. Meanwhile my teenage brothers who live with her (thank goodness I am old enough to live on my own) suffer the consequences of the State's neglect. The health professionals that deal with her also keep me completely in the dark, even though I am the only other adult who deals with her on a regular basis. There are hundreds of tragedies like yours waiting to happen. I worry about my family all the time. As far as I am concerned mental health services are just a 'do something' smokescreen and there is no real help available.

Why do all of you ignore the funding issue, if the Howard Government does not train enough doctors in a world wide doctor shortage, one must look past the act itself and ask why with an enormous amount of money in the bank, does it refuse to train doctors? From whom a percentage would go on to become mental health professionals.

Personally only one reason comes to mind, the AMA, yes the doctor's union. When a shortage of doctor's exist, doctors can continue to increase their charges, thus making them more wealthy than they already are. We have seen UNskilled workers boufgt in to work an abbotoir in SA, with the direct consequence being to lower meatworkers wages, this seems very much the same policy in reverse.

If not, can anyone tell me why in North Queensland we had 1182 applications for 83 places at James Cook University, which means 1099 potential doctor's have been wasted, an event which is no doubt dupicated again and again around this nation. Is it or is it not the responsibility of a national government to provide health care for its citizens, if it is, a the government has a predicted budget bsurplus of $17 billion, and can spend $600 million in Townsville for new guns for the ADF, why on Earth can't they spend $600 million in every State of the Nation on training doctors and allocating funds for hospitals? Improving services for the mentally ill.