Some suicidal patients felt worse after being admitted to Canberra and Calvary hospitals, often due to a lack of emotional support, a support program has found.
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The ACT's Health Care Consumers' Association and Mental Health Consumer Network have told the government in a budget submission that more needs to be done to train hospital staff to deal with patients who have experienced trauma.
Canberra participants in a suicide prevention program, The Way Back Support Service, told of their almost universally poor experiences at Canberra Hospital and Calvary Hospital emergency departments, according to the submission.
One participant who was interviewed said there was a lack of social interaction which made them feel worse.
"I believe if you bring someone who is suicidal, someone who is hopeless, they just don’t need to be left there alone," the participant said.
"They feel more alone and it is making the situation even worse. … If you take me to the hospital and leave me there and not check on me, it makes everything worse. It doesn’t help me. … Just try to make some
conversation. Chat with the patient."
Some patients said they felt stigmatised by staff in the hospitals and their condition was not taken seriously.
"I’ve had people [nurses] tell me … that you have to be thankful because you don’t have a physical illness," a patient said.
The submission said staff at the short stay mental health unit at Canberra Hospital had little to offer people who had attempted suicide and the environment itself made some people feel worse.
A participant said they were offered nothing except medication when they were upfront about their condition.
"So, I was just like, 'yeah, I’m fine'," the participant said.
Another participant said they were made to feel stupid for wanting to die and felt isolated and alone.
The experience was similar at Calvary Hospital's mental health unit, with a woman telling the program she was effectively ignored for a couple of days until her parents advocated on her behalf to see a psychiatrist.
She said she was also treated as a drug addict because she needed pain relief for a long-term physical complaint.
"It's that thing of being treated like you're just after medication, which I'm sure they come across as well," the patient said.
The submission said the patients' experiences at hospital arguably contributed to their trauma instead of helping.
The consumer groups said services would be improved by staff taking a trauma-informed approach to care, encouraging the government to fund training for all emergency department and mental health unit staff.
They also want trauma-informed care embedded in the adult mental health day service.
A Canberra Health Services spokesman said the submission would be considered as part of the budget process and it would not be appropriate to comment further.
“Canberra Health Services will continue to work closely with the association on a range of matters," he said.
“We are committed to continually looking at ways to improve staff training as one component of providing a trauma-informed approach for all consumers.”
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