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"Seemingly retaliated against"

About: Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital

(as the patient),

I have schizophrenia and often get episodes of psychosis. At first, the RBWH was quite helpful and helped keep me safe when I was having particularly bad episodes. (I also appreciate the help of the PAH where I was once brought). I can manage most of my psychosis at home and only seek help when my life is in serious danger. However, after I made a complaint about my involuntary outpatient treatment, I believe I received retaliation which resulted in me being permanently refused help at the RBWH and presumably also at all the other public hospitals in the state.

I feel they subjected me to harmful involuntary treatment for years. I believe this treatment has caused me severe, irreversible brain damage including the loss of the ability to feel pleasure. Also resulted in gastrointestinal and movement disorders. Before strangers couldn't tell I had an illness, now I feel it's obvious to anyone who sees me on the street. My practitioners seemingly kept ignoring my pleas so I felt obliged to make an official complaint. I didn't think they would take it personally, but I believe my psychiatrist certainly did. I feel they retaliated against me by writing seemingly  disparaging lies about me in my medical record and even mislabelled me with a condition I believe I had never been assessed for and of which I do not display a single symptom. I believe it's due to this apparent retaliation that I have been refused help from the ED at the RBWH on two occasions. On one of these occasions I suffered avoidable permanent health damage. It really upsets me how much my psychiatrist seemingly disregards my health and safety, and how little I can do about it. Due to my illness, it is a constant struggle just to stay alive, and now without access to healthcare, I don't believe I will live as long as I had planned.

Private hospitals are expensive, but even if I were able to pay, they do not offer emergency mental health care (it takes about a week to be admitted and even then they don't treat people with acute psychosis as I understand it). So now I feel I have nowhere to go for help when I need it, and I feel I will likely die early because of this. I'm only young, so I feel I might miss out on quite a lot of years. In my opinion, I can't believe this is happening to me just because, in my opinion, of one spiteful individual, although I guess it seems the whole system is complicit in turning a blind eye to what I believe is their misconduct.

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Responses

Response from Care Opinion Australia 10 months ago
Submitted on 7/02/2024 at 12:00 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 12:00 PM


Thank you for taking the time to share your story. As Metro North Hospital and Health Service is not currently partnered with Care Opinion Australia, we reached out to them to invite them to provide a response to your story. At this point in time, Metro North Hospital and Health Service has declined to provide a public response and asks that you contact them directly to provide your feedback. The details for providing feedback can be found on their website.

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