MAKING MEANING An exhibition of figurative, abstract and photographic art works

One of the most well known people with autism in the world, DONNA WILLIAMS is best known as an internationally best-selling author. With 10 published books, she is also an artist, sculptor, singer-songwriter, screenwriter and public speaker. She has exhibited in New York, her work has featured in art books, magazines and newsletters around the world and sold internationally.

Donna’s husband, CHRIS SAMUEL is a Systems Manager in Super Computing. A regular blogger, his site at www.csamuel.org receives thousands of visitors a month and features his writings on a range of social and environmental topics. He been doing photography since his teens and first exhibited his photography in 2009.

WHERE: The Bakery @ 1812 Theatre, 3 Rose St, Upper Ferntree Gully

TIMES: Wednesday-Saturday:  8.30pm – 11pm,  Sundays: 4pm – 6.30pm

ENQUIRIES: admin@1812theatre.com or phone 97583964    WEB: www.1812theatre.com.au

COST: There is no cost for the exhibition and 10% of all proceeds will benefit the 1812 community theatre.

This item originally posted here:

Making Meaning – an art show

I was diagnosed in a 3 day hospital observation at the age of 2 as psychotic. In 1965 that would have been a social death knell.  The abuse, degredation, being hidden, paraded etc, the sense I was only temporary and ultimately pegged for an institution… was that suffering due to the mental health system?

7 yrs of the primary school having me observed by Psych and Guidance, studied, evading, being labeled disturbed for my inability to comply, participate, communicate with all the associated 2nd class citizenship that entails in a mainstream.  The teachers going through the motions at best, mostly left alone or stood out in the corridor, later stood in the rubbish bin by the teacher who threw chalk at me to the amusement of the students… is that due to the mental health system?

Being 9 and medicated, sedated, then abused whilst sedated leaving me with even more trauma, dissociation, confusion to recover from but which was all deemed part of ‘being disturbed’, was that part of the mental health system? Being in psychiatry by 16 for attempted suicide and sent back out to the streets, sexploitation and abuse instead of to a social worker, was that abuse in the mental health system? In therapy with a child psychiatrist from 17-18 and medicated but not told of the side effects, and given her to disclose to with none of the tools with which to disclose and all the while returning home to the man who’d been abusing me since 16 instead of to a social worker… was that suffering in the mental health system?

Being 18 before the psychiatrist finally ran out of tricks and decided maybe I’m not ‘just’ crazy and just might be less crazy if I could read, write, add, subtract, get out of long term unemployment and off the streets so THEN she got a social worker to get me into education – was that suffering in the mental health system?

Being in college but so abused the psychiatrist recommended I’d be better off walking the streets, instead of getting a Social Worker back on my case to help me, was that suffering in the mental health system?

What I can say that for good or bad (and there was both) the child psychiatrist I had from 17-18 was the closest thing to family I had known.  She was my first positive role model and inspired me to want to have education like her, be professional and respected like her, be a citizen of community.  But on reflection there was so much she could have done differently but didn’t, simple things like sending me to the right professional for the job – a Social Worker – or at least liasing with one, and an OT for significant information processing and receptive language problems… but in those days they didn’t know a verbal adult with autism if they fell over one so if you were in a mess you were either backward, disturbed or crazy.   She’d talk of me as her ’star patient’ as if my success (which was also due to the Social Worker getting me into school) was a reflection on her alone.

I always felt uncomfortable being a ’star patient’.  I was a star.  I had got off the streets, escaped sexploitation, gained an education, had a chance at equality.  Being HER star PATIENT defined me as HER achievement, not my own, and reminded me of my role, I had achieved – AS A PATIENT.  Sort of saying ‘not bad for a nutter’.  But at the time, given the horrors I’d come from I thought her warm, kind, I was so grateful for a safe shrink’s office because everything else was so awful.  But in time, no, I feel she lacked humility, she didn’t share the load with a wider professional team as she should have, she reinforced my lesser social status indirectly (reinforcing her higher one too) and it could have been healthier than it was.

I had good experiences with Lawrie Bartak, an Educational Psychologist who diagnosed me with autism.  He helped me understand and come to terms with my information processing disorders.  He helped me navigate social basics and learn self protection skills.  He was an egalitarian and not at all the Clinical Psychologist type. I felt I was in the room with a human being.  Not a scientist.

I had good experiences with a mental health OT in Wales when struggling with loss, agoraphobia, on the edge of breakdown.  The OT got me back into my skills, the community, into life.

I had good experiences with Sheila Kittrick, a psychiatric social worker when I lived in England who did dreamwork hypnotherapy and worked with PTSD.  She was wonderful, innovative, empowering, practical, humanising, egalitarian and has the professionalism and boundaries I aim for an autism consultant. There was no them and us stuff but good clear boundaries (on both sides).  That’s good work.

A psychiatrist in the UK helped me onto low dose Risperdal (with the support of my psychiatric social worker) which probably continued to save my health (I have immune deficiencies so it improved my health) and my life.  In Australia I saw a reviewing psychiatrist who adapted that to low dose Seroquel.  It was a walk in walk out service.  I had no desire nor faith in having my head shrunk and the psychiatrist felt sort of like Freud, a kind of social gulf dividing the very expensive room, a strong ever present feeling of formal hierarchy in this doctor-patient setting.

I’m doing positive work with the psychiatric social worker I’m now seeing in Melbourne.  With qualifications in social work and psychology he’s got at least 5 years study behind him as well as practice and is more equipped to help me manage my stuff than the average 3-4 year graduate of clinical psychology who has no social work or OT to help me holistically with my issues.

A medication review this year with a new psychiatrist in a one off appointment found me diagnosed with DID (in addition to my autism) and the diagnosis probably helped although I was already working through the issues with the psychiatric social worker.

So how have I found psychiatry? More useful than suicide, useful for (potentially life saving) low dose medication if necessary, but fairly piss poor by contrast with what Social Work and OT can do for my mental health issues in the context of disability (a service the federal government is in the process of cutting funding to)  Did psychiatric medication help me?  I’ve been abused on it, abused by it, and saved because of it.  Medication is like a knife.  It can be used helpfully or dangerously.  What I do know is that medication and psychiatry alone, nor clinical psychology alone, could have helped me holistically to address the complexities of where mental health, disability and life long history of trauma are combined.  Fact is, my mental health issues ain’t all some pathology, conveniently removable from society, from community, from marginalisation and in that sense my mental health issues ain’t all IN MY HEAD.
Donna Williams, BA Hons, Dip Ed.
Author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter.
Autism consultant and public speaker.

http://www.myspace.com/nobodynowherethefilm
http://www.donnawilliams.net
http://www.aspinauts.com

This item originally posted here:

A personal review of psychiatry versus social work in the context of mental health

Greens candidate for Brand, Dawn Jecks and Greens health spokesperson, Rachel Siewert have urged the Government to reconsider a decision to cut funding for social workers and occupational therapists from a major mental health program. Senator Siewert said the removal of more than one thousand social workers from the Better Access program was an example of government’s “inadequate” response to growing demands on mental health services.

“Front line mental health social workers are absolutely critical to an effective approach to mental health care. Many people will be unable to receive Medicare-funded assistance from mental health social workers if these cuts go ahead.” The Better Access program will lose the funding for 1100 social workers in April next year if the funding cuts go ahead.  The Greens opposed these changes when they were announced and we continue to oppose the Federal Government’s plan.

“If social workers and occupation therapists are removed from the Better Access program – the consequences for people who need mental health care will be dramatic,” said Senator Siewert. The Federal Department of Health and Ageing is currently reviewing the program but, despite the review not being finalised, the Government has already made the decision to axe social workers from the program.

Ms Jecks said she was “deeply troubled” by the decision. “Social workers and occupational therapists are essential to a comprehensive approach to mental health,” she said. “Mental health is a matter of national importance requiring the creation of a new position in cabinet – a dedicated Minister for Mental Health”.

The Greens are calling for and will fight for additional funding of at least $350million per year for mental health over the next four years. This additional funding will be used to fund; $100million every year in incentives at the primary care level to target those in need, the vulnerable and long-term clientele working within the community and NGO sector. $150million per year for early intervention mental health programs including ‘Headspace’ and early psychosis prevention services; $100million per year for alternatives to emergency department treatment such as multi- disciplinary community-based sub-acute services that supports ‘stepped’ (two-staged) prevention and recovery care.

The Greens believe that years of under-funding by successive Federal governments have resulted in a mental health system which is not working. The Greens will work to establish a new Minister of Mental Health to take responsibility for rapidly implementing the changes necessary to meet the needs of people with mental illness.

want to take action to fight these funding cuts?

Write to your MP.  Contact the federal health minister, Nicola Roxon, and tell her what you think!

Federal Health Minister, Nicola Roxon,
1 Thomas Holmes Street
Maribyrnong Vic 3032,

ph 9317 7077.

or email her your experiences and feelings on the matter

nicola@nicolaroxonmp.com

Make your voice count.

Also 10,000 signatures is required to try and change this by December 2010. Please add yours.  Can you help get signatures from friends, local GP practices, your community?  You can find the petition here.

This item originally posted here:

Greens urge re-think on mental health cuts to Social Work and OT.

DONNA WILLIAMS

Hi Roxahn.  Thanks for agreeing to the interview.  Most people have some idea of what a Social Worker is but many people have never heard of Psychiatric Social Workers until this recent debate about the governments funding cuts under the Better Access program.  For many people there are Social Workers OR there are Psychiatrists/Psychologists and they presume that if you have mental health issues, why would you see a Social Worker.  As you’re a Psychiatric Social Worker could you give people an idea what Psychiatric Social Workers and OT’s do for those with mental health issues?

ROXAHN THOMAS

Social Workers (SW’s) and Occupational Therapists (OT’s) are equipped with diverse skills, training and experience; these strengths are employed the moment a client makes contact. We have a long tradition of working with the full spectrum of mental health conditions. The Better Access program emphasizes early intervention and predominantly targets those in the community with high prevalence conditions such as depression, anxiety, bereavement disorder, post-traumatic stress and adjustment disorder. Under the Better Access scheme, mental health Clinical SW’s and OT’s provide focused psychological strategies for adults, adolescents and children with mental illness and for people with co-morbidities that significantly complicate their mental health conditions (such as head injuries and drug and alcohol issues). This care is integrated and responsive to the needs of each client.

DONNA WILLIAMS

I didn’t realise these funding cuts would also affect the children who has mental health issues as part of their disabilities.  Working with children, teens and adults on the autism spectrum I’m well aware of the mental health complications children with disabilities face and being a Sociologist and teacher I see it from a social-psych perspective.  Sometimes mental health complications are linked to things like financial issues, bullying at school, isolation from wider family support, community discrimination where parents can’t bring themselves to take their children to the shops, to entertainment in the community or environments and approaches that could be adapted better to the disabilities etc.  Then complications start up for both the child and the carers like social phobia, depression, generalised anxiety disorder, school phobia, separation anxiety, learned helplessness, family breakdown etc.  But whilst I’m sure some look further, I commonly find that school psychologists tend to see these things as ‘just part of the autism’.

From your perspective why is A Social Work or OT perspective and service different to that of psychologists or psychiatrists?

ROXAHN THOMAS

SW’s and OT’s therapeutic intervention with clients is holistic and systemic. We see the importance of working with the individual and the systems they exist within.

DONNA WILLIAMS

I can relate to that.  Whilst people can be medicated for their mood, anxiety, compulsive disorders or psychoses, there’s clearly need to have someone on board to work holistically with the social issues, part, present and social trajectories for people’s future.  Hope is the greatest medicine and as someone with both disabilities and co-morbid psych challenges I don’t look at my Seroquel and see ‘hope’.  It’s part of the management of my issues but my issues are more than my own psych pathologies, they are part of wider social issues and how I navigate those as someone with disabilities.

What is the training of a Social Worker or OT within mental health?

ROXAHN THOMAS

To register as a Better Access provider, Clinical SW’s and OT’s are required to have clinical experience of at least two years fulltime postgraduate work in mental health facilities.

DONNA WILLIAMS

So that’s a two year post graduate specialisation then, on top of the 3 years it takes to become a Social Worker or OT.

ROXAHN THOMAS

Mental Health Clinical SW’s receive more training in focused psychological strategies and hold more experience in mental health service provision than newly registered psychologists who are automatically eligible as Better Access providers.

DONNA WILLIAMS

Then it’s ludicrous that newly graduated psychologists with a 3 year graduate degree and no training in social work will continue to get funding and funding for mental health social workers with a 3 years graduate degree and a further two years of post grad specialisation in mental health will be cut.  Also, in my experience, the fees for psychologists tend to be far higher with less rebate for the service user.

ROXAHN THOMAS

Approximately two thirds of our clients are either bulk billed, or pay a small ($5-30) gap for service. We operate in a culturally and community/milieu – sensitive context
. We look at developmental history, family of origin, and environmental factors when making an assessment and treatment plan. Psychology tends to follow the medical or “germ” model, where the illness or pathology is in the individual, whereas we are much more systemic in our approach.

DONNA WILLIAMS

Who are their services most relevant to?

ROXAHN THOMAS

Individuals who experience mental health issues, the financially disadvantage, and those who live in rural and remote Australia. I live and work in Rural Victoria and offer affordable and accessible counseling to individuals, couples, and families. Other local psychology counseling services have month long waiting lists. What will happen to those clients who currently utilise our services and those who will need to in the future?

DONNA WILLIAMS

What is the reasoning behind thinking only psychiatrists or psychologists can best address mental health issues?

ROXAHN THOMAS

To date, there has been no reason why only OT’s and SW’s are to be removed from the initiative.

DONNA WILLIAMS

Tell us about the funding cuts and what rationale do you think they’re based on?

ROXAHN THOMAS

The Government has provided us with no rationale. From 1 April 2011, Australians, including low-income earners, disadvantaged and those in rural and remote areas will no longer receive specialist mental health care from SW’s and OT’s under the Medicare Better Access Initiative. The provision cost of these services is very low, yet removal of the Medicare rebate will be far reaching and devastating, and ultimately costly. This decision was made at least eight months before the evaluation of the Better Access funding was complete.

DONNA WILLIAMS

Who will these cuts hurt most?

ROXAHN THOMAS

Individuals who experience: mental health issues, are financially disadvantaged, clients who don’t or can’t access mainstream counseling services, and clients who have built upon a long-term therapeutic relationship with an OT and/or SW and will no longer be able to be rebated for these sessions after 1st April 2011.

DONNA WILLIAMS

If these cuts hurt social minorities why should the ‘general public’ care?

ROXAHN THOMAS

The general public themselves are possibly clients of SW’s or OT’s! And if not, maybe they have family or friends that are. Mental Health won’t be so accessible or affordable.  It’s also important for individuals to be able to choose what therapeutic intervention suits them – and if their preference is to see a SW or OT they shouldn’t have to pay more than if they wanted to see a psychologist.

DONNA WILLIAMS

Is it to late to turn around the government’s decision to cut Medicare funding for SW’s and OT’s?

ROXAHN THOMAS

Absolutely not. The Labor Government can reverse their decision.

DONNA WILLIAMS

What can people do to show their support for the continued funding of these services?

ROXAHN THOMAS

They can sign the petition, make contact and raise the issue with their local MP’s, write letters to the Government supporting OT’s and SW’s to remain in the initiative, attend mental health vigils in their communities, network and inform others of this issue, and if having been a client of an OT and/or SW – write about this experience to: the media, Government, local MPs, etc

DONNA WILLIAMS

Thanks for your time Roxahn.

Warmly,

Donna Williams, BA Hons, Dip Ed.
Author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter.
Autism consultant and public speaker.

http://www.myspace.com/nobodynowherethefilm
http://www.donnawilliams.net
http://www.aspinauts.com

This item originally posted here:

What is a psychiatric social worker and what do they do?

It was around 4pm when we started to set up down the other end of the events hall, hardly anyone present.  We decided to move the stock table down toward the stage so I could keep an eye on it during our performance.  I took my handbag, checked it was locked, wrapped its strap around it and obscured it among the music bags we stored under the table.

Around 5pm people trickled in and we took the stage, singing our usual Aspinauts madness mixed with beat poetry, gestural signing and fun and all streamed live via video to other regional branches.

By 5.05 a group of about 12 people had gathered in front of my stock table, obscuring it.  But behind the table was a woman who had taken a seat, my seat, behind the table, looking as though she was attending the stall.  I figured she was maybe a parent of someone on the spectrum just taking a rest there.  Heather held up her bag, pointing to it and then to the back of my stall.  I gave her the thumbs up, sure, she could store her bag safely back there, no problem.  I figured I’d better let this small crowd know I wasn’t able to sell them books until after the show so with the band improving to cover me I wandered over, miked up with my wireless mike and told them.  They dispersed slowly, the woman still sitting in my chair.  On my way back to the stage I noticed my bag.  It was still on the floor but now unwound, opened and toward the front of the table.  I went to it, opened it and realised with dread my red and black purse was absent.  I looked at the woman behind my stall, pointed at her and said, “you will stay there.  You won’t move.  You’ve been here the whole time.  You will stay right there”.  Then I took the stage.  I announced to the audience “Someone get security immediately, my red and black purse has been stolen”.  Heather went to look for her back.  Her purse was missing.  “Mine too”, she called.

I made the announcement again, “there are two stolen purses, please get security immediately”.  The woman moved to sit behind the next table, edging her way to the exit.  “Ok then, they say the show must go on”, I said, then continued to sing and perform our set as the room waited for security.  A staff member then came to the stage addressing me, “I’ve seen it, she’s got it, your purse is in her bag”.  The guys in the band improvised as I strode off the stage to the woman.  “You have my purse, you will give it to me immediately, empty your bag”, I told her.  She went through the motions of going through her bag with one hand as the other, obscured by a coat moved about.  My purse fell under the table in full view of the room.  “It’s on the floor, she’s dropped it”, called someone.  I picked up my purse.  “Heather, this woman has your purse”, I called out, heard by the whole room.  Heather’s purse then dropped onto the floor under the table.  Security arrived.

I checked my purse.  My cards were all there.  I didn’t think to check for my money.  It wasn’t until after the show and after being interviewed by the police and they’d left that I found my purse was empty.  It had had receipts in it, from my village, from my counselor.  I phoned the police who still had the thief in custody.  I described my receipts and how much money was missing.

On the way out the door, the band now packed up, I got a call.  The police had found my receipts on the thief.  I would get my money back once the case was prosecuted.  She was not with the conference.  She had wandered in to see what she could steal and probably knew nothing about autism.  She had picked two people with autism to steal from and we had caught her.  I learned from the hotel staff the cleaners had found other people’s belongings in the toilets.  She had had a busy day.  But when she picked on an Aspinaut armed with a microphone, a captive audience and notoriety she could not hide from, she had really pushed her luck.

Donna Williams, BA Hons, Dip Ed.
Author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter.
Autism consultant and public speaker.

http://www.myspace.com/nobodynowherethefilm
http://www.donnawilliams.net
http://www.aspinauts.com

This item originally posted here:

How The Aspinauts Foiled a Robbery

I became a a teacher, an autism consultant, a lecturer, and work with families and with adults with a range of abilities and disabilities, including co-morbid psychiatric issues.  A percentage of my clients will access the services of Social Workers and Occupational Therapists because they require something more holistic, more practical than a medication review, medication or further scrutiny of their psychiatric symptoms.  They require a hands on approach which looks at their life in the context of their community, their social networks, their personhood.  Whilst we have Medicare funding for such people to see Social Workers and Occupational Therapists, such people have a far better chance at equality and an integrated place in the community.  Social Workers and Occupational Therapists are trained to think and work holistically, to see beyond the labels, the ‘pathology’.

People are not one size fits all.  Our services should reflect that.

Do add your story, add your voice.  This funding slash isn’t set in stone yet.  The decision will be reviewed in December 2010.  Write to your MP.  Contact the federal health minister, Nicola Roxon, and tell her what you think!

Federal Health Minister, Nicola Roxon,
1 Thomas Holmes Street
Maribyrnong Vic 3032,

ph 9317 7077.

or email her your experiences and feelings on the matter

nicola@nicolaroxonmp.com

Make your voice count.

Also 10,000 signatures is required to try and change this by December 2010. Please add yours.  Can you help get signatures from friends, fellow spectrumites, local GP practices, your community?  Here’s the petition.

Richardson House petition-1

Please print it out.

Once signed they need to all be sent to the address at the foot of the petition.

Thanks for giving a damn.

Donna Williams, BA Hons, Dip Ed.
Author, autism consultant and public speaker.
http://www.donnawilliams.net

This item originally posted here:

What do Social Workers and OTs do in the field of Mental Health?

medicare funding cuts

WHY SIGN THIS PETITION?

1 in 150 people in Australia are diagnosed as having an autism spectrum disorder. 90% of adults on the autism spectrum have experienced bullying. Many are forced out of school early due to depression, anxiety disorders and breakdown. As adults those in this population will be significantly more at risk of social isolation, dislocation from their community, unemployment, and homelessness than the general population. Around 1/3rd of adults on the autism spectrum will become diagnosed with additional mental health problems stemming at least in part from social disadvantage. When those developmental disabilities, including Aspergers develop mental health issues associated with long term unemployment, social isolation and community disconnection, Accredited Mental Health Social Workers are uniquely skilled to address their psychosocial issues and improve their quality of life in ways not addressed by Psychiatrists or psychologists alone. With a 90% unemployment rate among even those most able adults on the autism spectrum, most are on income support. As such, if they require mental health services, most will be unable to access these services if not covered by Medicare funding. From 2011 the Government is going to cut Medicare funding for Social Workers and Occupational Therapists under “Better Access to Mental Health Services” Program. 10,000 signatures is required to try and change this by December 2010. Please add yours.  Can you help get signatures from friends, fellow spectrumites, local GP practices, your community?  Here’s the petition.

Richardson House petition-1

Please print it out.

Once signed they need to all be sent to the address at the foot of the petition.

Thanks for giving a damn.

Warmly,

Donna Williams, BA Hons, Dip Ed.
Author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter.
Autism consultant and public speaker.

http://www.myspace.com/nobodynowherethefilm
http://www.donnawilliams.net
http://www.aspinauts.com

This item originally posted here:

Involved with Someone on The Autism Spectrum?

Living with disabilities, being homeless or itinerant, having no family support, lacking basic literacy or education, being disconnected from community, increase a person’s chances of mental illness and reduce their recovery until those issues are addressed, until there appears to be hope, opportunities, empowerment, reconnection, social supports in place, a plan.  That’s what Occupational Therapists and Social Workers do.

Whilst a psychiatrist can prescribe these people medication or help them explore the pathologies they often already know they have, the psychiatrist or the psychologist doesn’t do social work, they don’t do Occupational Therapy.  They  can’t get people back into work or explore self employment options with them.  They can’t research possibilities for returning to education, help with literacy or the funding to cover it.  They can’t link people up with community supports or help them to create social networks to empower them with a sense of belonging.  Psychiatrists and psychologist have important skills, but Social Work and OT aren’t some of them.  So whilst psychiatrists and psychologists may pick up work once Nicola Roxon follows through with proposed funding cuts to Medicare cover for Social Workers and OTs as of 2011, it is really the patients and clients without additional disabilities, who have good education, work opportunities, social, community and family supports who will continue to get the best out of their services.

I know of those who won’t.

• People with Asperger’s living with long term unemployment (only 12% of adults with Asperger’s have ongoing paid employment), estranged from their families, without friends, who have drifted into homelessness and developed mental health problems.
• People with severe Dyspraxia and communication disorders who are socially isolated with no occupations, no friendship groups, who have developed mental health problems.
• The siblings and carers of those with severe disabilities who are at risk of breakdowns or going through them but need more than ‘a shrink’.
• The parents of children with autism at risk of harming their children if they don’t get help with their own mental health issues in the context of the social work issues of caring for someone with autism.

These people have names and faces.  They are people I’ve encountered in my work as an autism consultant and advocate since 1996.  They are people who have had medication and found it didn’t solve their lives, people who abused medication to try and cope with the hopelessness of their lives, people who felt alienated in the psychologist’s office and gave up  because they fixated on them getting insight into their condition without exploring what was missing in their lives, people who’ve been in the shrink’s office but need help that’s more holistic, more practical than the shrink offered.

Of course these people are social minorities.  Will we allow the Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, to ignore such people?

Add your story, add your voice.  This funding slash isn’t set in stone yet.  The decision will be reviewed in December 2010.  Write to your MP.  Contact the federal health minister, Nicola Roxon, and tell her what you think!

Federal Health Minister, Nicola Roxon,
1 Thomas Holmes Street
Maribyrnong Vic 3032,

ph 9317 7077.

or email her your experiences and feelings on the matter

nicola@nicolaroxonmp.com

Make your voice count.

Also 10,000 signatures is required to try and change this by December 2010. Please add yours.  Can you help get signatures from friends, fellow spectrumites, local GP practices, your community?  Here’s the petition.

Richardson House petition-1

Please print it out.

Once signed they need to all be sent to the address at the foot of the petition.

Thanks for giving a damn.

Donna Williams, BA Hons, Dip Ed.
Author, autism consultant and public speaker.
http://www.donnawilliams.net

This item originally posted here:

Mental health cuts to harm marginalised communities.

Count Me In

THERE IS A CANDLELIGHT VIGIL happening THIS TUESDAY NIGHT around Australia in your local communities  (10th August 2010).  Bring candles and lanterns and join in.  There’ll be local singing groups and public speakers to talk about mental health in the community.  Gather people and bring them along and let’s let Nicola Roxon know people will not let her get away with  slashing medicare funding for OTs and Social Workers and underfunding Mental Health Services.

• What: Candlelight vigil for better mental health services
• When: Gather from 6pm
• WHERE: Check this link to find the one closest to you

The services Nicola Roxon is cutting funding for are life saving services and are particularly relevant to those teens and adults with developmental disabilities who also have mental health problems whose complex needs cannot be adequately met by medication from psychiatrists or psychologists alone.  Please let others know about this important issue.  If enough people show the Minister for Health will have to start listening.

Also 10,000 signatures is required to try and change this by December 2010. Please add yours.  Can you help get signatures from friends, local GP practices, your community?  Here’s the petition.

Richardson House petition-1

Please print it out.  Once signed they need to all be sent to the address at the foot of the petition.

Thanks for giving a damn.

Warmly,
Donna Williams, BA Hons, Dip Ed.
Author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter.
Autism consultant and public speaker.

http://www.myspace.com/nobodynowherethefilm
http://www.donnawilliams.net
http://www.aspinauts.com

This item originally posted here:

Australia Wide Candlelight Vigil for Mental Health this Tues 10th Aug 2010

As a person with autism, learning disabilities and mental health issues from a background of abuse and homelessness, a lot of my skills took years to acquire.  I had had a lifetime of labels, Psych and Guidance, medicated by age 9, psychiatry since my teens.  But it was a social worker who liased with my psychiatrist to get me – relatively illiterate, innumerate, itinerant and at risk – back into education.  The psychiatrist took the credit but it was there I understood the very different jobs these people had in the area of mental health.  The psychiatrist could medicate me, but the Social Worker had a more powerful medicine – practical plans and support to change, to save, a life.

It took me from age 15 to my 20s to acquire many self help and hard won independence skills;

• how to reliably carry a house key and not lock myself out,
• how to drive and remember where I was going and what time it was,
• how to recognise which pieces of post were bills and how to pay them,
• how to manage phone conversations with agencies and services,
• how to shop and keep track of change, how to manage a payment card,
• how to prepare food into a meal, how to tell a friend from someone who would exploit or abuse me.

I became an author.  It was one of those one in a million chance things.  My book was a bestseller and I found myself able to buy my own house and had an income to support myself.

Not understanding the difference between being loved and being owned and controlled, a very clever person wangled their way into my life and house.  He encouraged me to let him touch me, to marry him, to buy an isolated property and then and over the next two years progressively wore down my confidence in my hard won self help skills.  Under the guise of ‘helping me’, ‘caring about me’,  he took over the keys to the house, all the finances, the driving, the cooking, all phone conversations, all shopping, my credit card, vetted all my friends and supports until they dwindled to none and insisted I not even walk to the letter box alone.  The day after the second wedding anniversary he announced he was now entitled to half of everything I owned and was leaving.

I had spent two years without practicing my self help skills.  Agoraphobic, isolated, disoriented, I didn’t need a psychiatrist or medication.  I needed practical hands on help in the home and the community to pattern me back into my life skills.  That help came in the form of an Occupational Therapist.  She helped me get back my strategies and the life skills these supported, helped me get my confidence back and helped me put supports in place for the things I needed help with.  Within three months I was running my life as an independent adult, able to commute from home out into the community, even joining in community activities and looking after a cat.  This is the sort of human story the Government seems to struggle to imagine.  Yet it is the story of so many adults with special needs, those from backgrounds of trauma, homelessness, addiction, who don’t neatly fit the traditional ‘psychiatric patient’ box and who, from time to time, will need support to keep their lives on track or get them back on track. Many of those people will be unable to access services if Medicare cover for those services is slashed.

I became a a teacher, an autism consultant, a lecturer, and work with families and with adults with a range of abilities and disabilities, including co-morbid psychiatric issues.  A percentage of my clients will access the services of Social Workers and Occupational Therapists because they require something more holistic, more practical than a medication review, medication or further scrutiny of their psychiatric symptoms.  They require a hands on approach which looks at their life in the context of their community, their social networks, their personhood.  Whilst we have Medicare funding for such people to see Social Workers and Occupational Therapists, such people have a far better chance at equality and an integrated place in the community.  Social Workers and Occupational Therapists are trained to think and work holistically, to see beyond the labels, the ‘pathology’.  Their service is designed to be humanising, egalitarian, to be an alternative to the ‘them’ and ‘us’ they may have found with Psychiatrists and psychologists.

People are not one size fits all.  Our services should reflect that.

Do add your story, add your voice.  This funding slash isn’t set in stone yet.  The decision will be reviewed in December 2010.  Write to your MP.  Contact the federal health minister, Nicola Roxon, and tell her what you think!

Federal Health Minister, Nicola Roxon,
1 Thomas Holmes Street
Maribyrnong Vic 3032,

ph 9317 7077.

or email her your experiences and feelings on the matter

nicola@nicolaroxonmp.com

Make your voice count.

Also 10,000 signatures is required to try and change this by December 2010. Please add yours.  Can you help get signatures from friends, fellow spectrumites, local GP practices, your community?  Here’s the petition.

Richardson House petition-1

Please print it out.

Once signed they need to all be sent to the address at the foot of the petition.

Thanks for giving a damn.

Donna Williams, BA Hons, Dip Ed.
Author, autism consultant and public speaker.
http://www.donnawilliams.net

This item originally posted here:

Australian Government seeks to slash Medicare rebates for OT and Social Work