PSYC3500 - Advanced Mental Health Psychology Assignment

Assignment Task

Stigma and discrimination is an avoidable harm that impact negatively on the mental and physical well-being of individuals and families experiencing problemac alcohol and other drug use. (Queensland Mental Health Commission, 2018) Please take part in some self-reflection. These responses are not required to be submitted as part of your assignment.

Questions

1. Consider in what ways have you experienced, seen or heard about people who experience harm related to their AOD use being treated unfairly... in the context of seeking health care? or in some other context?

2. How would you describe your current overall attitude towards those who experience harm related to their use of AOD?

• Very negative
• Negative
• Neutral
• Positive
• Very Positive

3. How likely or unlikely would you be to advise a close friend or relative who has been treated for AOD not to tell anyone else about it?

• Extremely unlikely (1)
• Unlikely (2)
• Neutral (3)
• Likely (4)
• Extremely likely (5)

Lived Experience

1 Maxine (F, age 42, methamphetamine) had to leave inpatient withdrawal management early due to a family emergency - when her 12-year-old son had incurred a broken leg in an accident at school. Maxine reported that she was not referred to a new GP when she exited the service because she ‘actually [already] had one’. However, she clarified that she plans to seek care from this GP only ‘when [she] really need[s] to’. This hesitancy was informed by past negative experiences, such as when she had gone to her GP after being violently assaulted in a home invasion. On showing her facial injuries to the GP, she felt that ‘he didn’t care’ and ‘was just pissed off to be at work’. Maxine felt judged when she visited the GP:

Automatically, there’s that judgment. I feel that judgment instantly, and any hope of speaking and sharing and looking for a little empathy goes straight out the door. They look at me, ‘she’s a junkie. I’m not giving her nothing except a bloody lecture’ […] I think he could’ve been more comprehensive in his examination and the possible ramifications of what we’ve been through and been more medically empathetic and willing and understanding.

When I was first taken to Emergency when I had my psychotic episode, the ambulance drivers said, ‘Why didn’t you catch a bus?’ and my friend tried to explain to them, ‘She’s paranoid schizophrenic, she’s freaking out,’ [and] ‘she can’t catch the bus, like, she needs you to take her’. They were doing my blood pressure and stuff [and] they were really rough with me and things like that. I ended up with this big bruise on my arm where one of them grabbed it. Then, when I got to emergency, they said, ‘You just have to sit in the [crowded waiting room],’ and, like, there were people everywhere […] And then when they took me into the [psychiatric emergency] unit, that’s when they said, like, you know, ‘She’s not well’ […] and they go, ‘Well, she should be taking her medication then’ […] [I felt I was treated like this] because I was a drug addict […] And they knew I was a drug addict because I don’t lie.

It’s a vicious cycle, it really is. People don’t understand what it’s like because then I overanalyse and over-think everything. It can really affect me so bad that I will come home and I, unfortunately, take it out on my family and it stays – it could stay with me for a month. I can’t let it go and I won’t go and ask for help anywhere else or… I just won’t go out of the house. It just stops me from doing so much, just something so simple

1) How do these live experience stories speak to:

a) the impacts and consequences of AOD stigma for a person seeking health care (30%) and

b) the types of factors that may play a part in the occurrence of negative, stigmatizing interactions.

2) Reflect on your own reactions to, and feelings about Maxine, Piper and Michael. Are there any aspects of their individual stories or personal characteristics that influence your reactions or perhaps your level of sympathy towards them? Or, if not for you personally, that you think may sometimes influence the reasons or sympathy shown by others?

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