I had a lovely young woman come in to tell a story of violence. She was claiming compensation for a specific event of violence. The premise of compensation is that society pays for an injury that results from the violence. Life or "functioning" in psychological speak has got to have got worse as a result of the violence to claim compensation.

She had a miserable life. She lived in our very anglo-celtic town and was from a mixed heritage background. She suffered what we all dread for our children - merciless bullying. She was called ugly to her face because she had obvious racial characteristics thought unattractive by simple, basic, culturally poor children. I felt ashamed to be anglo.

Her mother and father separated and her mother brought her up in way thought abusive in our culture, possibly just "traditional" in her own. Regardless the girl felt unloved and completely alone. She began self-harming with enthusiasm and began acting-out at home. The bullying continued well into high school and she had sex at thirteen to try to fit in. She had sex and just kept going, doing anything to find acceptance.

At a party some eight months ago she was assaulted. bashed by three girls no less. She suffered bruising and swelling around the face and a bleeding nose. Most importantly perhaps she was deserted by every one else at the party. She walked around town for half an hour looking for someone to help. she was taken to hospital by ambulance.

So the outcome was she changed schools and is now popular. She fits in. she has found God and has found her sexual integrity. She was just congratulated for excellent academic success at her new school. what a wonderful outcome! More ...

i need some help with the technology I struggle with. if anyone out there reads this stuff you might notice i dont respond to comments. the problem is all the comments i receive are written in japanese script! no matter who posts the comments! i am missing a whole lost of interesting comments and i'd love to respond or at least see if people think i write crap. If you have any suggestions for how to fix the problem please e-mail me to make a suggestion: katman2@dodo.com.au More ...

so we have a convicted child porn watcher. he is fairly true to type. He is middle aged, unmarried, lonely. He is ineffectual and unable to maintain normal romantic attachments. Not because he is particularly repulsive, just because he hasn't quite sharpened the skills necessary. He developed a bit of an OCD quality to his computer and internet use. At one stage making sure he had every image or page of a particular topic "covered" and then another topic. One month it was Australian warships, the next it was organic gardening. I'm not kidding.

SO then it was pornography. This time it was "the worst possible thing" he could look at. In some ways he continued to look at it to make sure he was still horrified by it. A bit like poking a tooth decay hole to make sure it still hurts. He handed over his credit car details and purchased images.

Needless to say he was eventually tracked down and sent to me for treatment. We needed to deal the sexual interest of course, with social isolation, with alcohol abuse. We also needed to deal with the guilt he felt. He was completely wracked by it because his activity was , by definition, "the worst possible thing" he could look at. That why he did it. Weird concept to get your head around, I know.

One very important part of treatment was identifying the guilt and doing something about it. As it was it was just contributing to self loathing and more drinking. we looked at the idea of making restitution. Of "balancing out the universe" and doing something good for others that no one else knows about. He loved the idea. He felt some relief. We settled on anonymous blood giving to the blood bank. He could do something good that no-one need know anything about, to balance the anonymous bad stuff that no-one should have known anything about. Kind of neat solution? More ...

I would like to post a letter I have written to our brilliant public mental health service. I think it is fairly self explanatory. Needless to say I myself was purple with rage after the incident. Writing a letter and then posting it to the public is very therapeutic indeed.



Dear Director of Mental Health Services,

I am writing to express some serious concerns I have arising from my recent contact with mental health services.

On Monday I had a session with a client and developed very serious concerns about his mental health. he had expressed non specific but clear threats to kill himself and to kill others. He left the session early and left in a fury.

As soon as the client left my rooms I telephoned his parents. they explained that the client had had previous contact with police and mental health services. In June of last year his parents had called police because of his violence and they attended. he taken to A&E but left there police. Unsurprisingly he walked out. he returned to his parent's home and became more violent. His parents were again unsurprisingly not keen to access the services of the police or mental health again.

Following this conversation I telephoned police because of concerns about his safety. I wanted to pass information to the police so that if his parents needed to contact them they would respond appropriately. I wanted police to ensure if he was transported to hospital he would not be released without adequate assessment and supervision. They accepted the information gratefully.

I then telephoned the mental health assessment team with the same intention. My training tells me that I should provide information to those who might come in contact with my client. My training tells me that people might have been in danger both within and without the mental health service. I was particularly worried that my client might have been released prematurely. I was providing a service to both my client, his parents and mental health staff.

However, I was very clearly told that no information would be taken from me by the assessment tea. I was informed that I must provide all information through central intake. I was told that there was nothing that could be done with the information I was trying to provide. I was put through to the central intake line and left a message. By seven pm no-one had returned my call, I left work for the night. As I write I am not sure how the situation ended. I can only hope the client was never taken to either Mandala or A&E. I sincerely hope there was no violent outcome.

Regardless, I am horrified about the lack of regard, or adequate process provided our clients on this occasion and the blatant professional disregard I experienced. I am a very experienced mental health clinician and was treated with absolutely no respect. I can only wonder how our mutual clients are treated. I can also only wonder about the reaction of the public and of the Area health Service if this situation did indeed go terribly wrong.

regards,

Renee Napier
Clinical and Forensic Psychologist More ...