Today in one of my Sunday newspapers there was a leaflet from See Me Scotland. It’s a good leaflet but I think it’s the wrong leaflet.
As I see it it’s not about the reducing stigma of mental illness- we can’t ever hope to view those of us with a mental health problem as equals until mental health services are as good, timely and responsive as those for people with physical health problems.
The leaflet cites the example of a broken leg vs depression-
“When I was off work with a broken leg I got loads of support from the fire brigade. Crew were always dropping by, so much so that there was almost always a fire engine outside the house. When I went off sick with depression there was nothing. Not one card, call or visit”.
Whilst I am not in anyway saying there is no stigma (and we stigmatise ourselves by remaining silent). I think the real difference that we need to look at is services.
There is no way when this particular person turned up at hospital with his broken leg anyone said “yes I think your leg is broken- take these pills, if its not better in a month come back, we’ll increase the dose, I’ll put you on the waiting list for an x-ray but that’ll take a couple of months and if you need your leg plastered I’m afraid there is a 9 month waiting list. We’d really like to operate but we just don’t have anywhere to do it or any staff and the NHS aren’t keen on funding surgery anymore as drugs are much cheaper and can be dealt with by a GP in the community.”
Yet I know I have heard the above said before in relation to my mental illness and others have too.
The real stigma of mental illness comes from within- both from sufferers and ‘the system’.
At a time when we are least able to be our own advocates we are fighting a system that has little to give and does not want to give what little it has. We settle for treatments that we don’t want or don’t think will help. Health professionals are often apologetic about the level of care offered but most are too run down or institutionalised or meek to speak up.
I don’t wholly disagree with the See Me campaign but I’d rather see a See Me-Treat Me campaign. I’d wear a badge with a list of my diagnoses on it if I thought it would get me some sort of help with my mental health problems.