Permanently falsely diagnosed

[-Blip-]

Hi, this is more an exploratory post as I've come to the end of the legal journey. 

Several years ago I was inaccurately diagnosed with various mental health issues on the basis of false claims by police after they assaulted me. They had me scheduled. Subsequently a neighbour learnt of these matters and made some malicious claims to the local mental health clinic in an attempt to have me scheduled.  All this happened over several years without my knowledge and I was never informed.

This came to a head when I made a workplace compensation claim for an unrelated matter. The insurer requested my medical records (which i didn't even know existed) and this started coming out. It was very difficult to get actual evidence due to obstruction from basically every agency involved and the ongoing harassment as my medical records were also publicy distributed. Basically it ruined my reputation and life.

None of this is legal but because I didn't know or was stumbling around in regard to legislative requirements, various timeframes to take action including access and rectification of my medical information expired. That's the end of my legal journey under the HRIPA (NSW).

My issue now is that these mental health records are permanent. It also means I am constantly under threat of scheduling and forcefully medicated (as has occurred) for inexistant mental health conditions. At the same time I have a police "profile" on the basis of these inexistant mental health conditions. This means I cannot make a complaint or report when I'm assaulted or am involved in a car accident as it is deemed a figment of my imgaination. Or if something adverse happens in the neighbourhood the police come straight to my place. Another example is that my employment was diagnosed as a figment of my imagination and an attempt to have me scheduled on that basis was attempted. A further systemic issue is that doctors don't really assess the patient. Instead past records are relied upon and so the same and similar inaccurate assessments are repeated. 

All this of course causes great fear because I have already been forcefully scheduled and experienced the complete loss of freedom, the loss of decision making, and the uncertainity of being scheduled for an unknown length of time. 

[holdinghope5]

Hi @-Blip- welcome to the forums. Thank you for sharing your story here with us, I am sorry to hear how incredibly distressing it is to have had your life turned upside down from all of this. It is unsurprising that you're experiencing a lot of fear and distress, particularly to have your sense of control taken away. 

It might be helpful to know a little more about what you are looking for on the forums, as this is a space for peer-to-peer connection and support. We welcome you to continue to connect with others here and hope you find it to be an inclusive and supportive community.

[chibam]

Hi @-Blip- . Welcome to the forums! 🙂

What you've been through sounds awfully unjust. There ought to be a way for misdiagnosed patients to get their records corrected. Even convicted criminals can get their criminal records corrected, if it's proven that their conviction was unjust and/or that they are in fact innocent. If that's not the case for mental health records, then that's appalling!

By the looks of things, if your in NSW and you need help sorting out this sort of therapy stuff-up, then the people your supposed to contact are The Mental Health Advocacy Service (https://www.legalaid.nsw.gov.au/my-problem-is-about/mental-healt.... There's also another major advocacy organization in NSW called Being, but from their website it looks like they don't help patients with cases like this.

A fair while ago another user on here posted links to the beaurocratic mechanisms that allow us to access our own mental health files. I wish I'd bookmarked those posts or something. You might have been interested in those links.

[Sugarshack]

Hello @-Blip- first up good on you for speaking out, as it sounds like a horrible and frustrating situation, also one of immense stigma, shame and similar to our Australian hero "Ned Kelly" in that the ongoing persecution stacks up and makes life very difficult for the person who is or has been persecuted.

My ex partner was heavily tattooed and he used to talk about being harrassed by (authority people) and I always thought he was being paranoid til one night I got bailed up with him, and it was a very unpleasant experience where it seemed they were out and about picking on people and interogorrated him about many personal issues over several hours. He had a very hard background and he was fairly hopeless but still trying to put his life on track and that type of treatment rattled his cage and sent him 2 steps backwards for every step he tried to put forward.

So what I say here is I believe you and I have seen it with my own two eyes where a person has been involved in some difficult situations then wears a stigma from it.

Addtionally re: psych ward being used for discipline, my brother has been through that too where he has to be 1000% 'good boy' at all times because if he expresses any anger, sadness, ideas, concepts he is told he's being bipolar and he should go to the ward. But they don't send him there for improvement they send him there as in "I don't want to deal with you and if you don't shut up i'll use your mental health status against you."

It is heartbreaking to me because my brother is a good person and like any other person he gets angry, sad, has ideas and he's kept like a rat in a cage.

Someone else mentioned some groups that might help you clean the record up and I googled a few options up:

Mental Health Advocacy Service  

https://www.legalaid.nsw.gov.au/my-problem-is-about/mental-health/involuntary-hospitalisation/mental...

MHCC Mental Health Rights Manual – An online guide to the legal and human rights of people navigatin...

https://mhrm.mhcc.org.au/

Mental health and wellbeing | The Law Society of NSW

https://www.lawsociety.com.au/resources/mental-health-and-wellbeing

Finding Advocacy Support - BEING - Mental Health Consumers Ltd.

https://being.org.au/finding-advocacy-support/

Mental Health Legal Services Ashfield & Sydney | Monardo Legal – Advocacy & Support — Monardo Legal (Commercial Lawyers)

https://monardolegal.com.au/mental-health-legal-services/

Last but not least i just wanted to express solidarity and sympathy to you because it seems like you're trying to give a red hot go at life but things keep cropping up to send you backwards as you try to rise up. It's bloody hard yes it is but keep fighting if we don't do it for ourselves there's no one who will step up and do it for us very sadly.

Also it might be helpful for you to engage in some type of face to face support as it sounds like a tough situation to deal with and I personally believe that having friends and acceptance from the community is a very important step to reducing stigma and shame. When you know another person in a similar struggle it feels a lot better than feeling outcast and alone in the world. Frequently I am reminded how mentally ill people and street people are a lot more accepting that society people and I get a lot of comfort out of 'my people' where we all try to fight against injustice and, lift up or leave alone cause life just isn't fair that's for sure.

But HOPEFULLY one of those advocacy groups can make it a bit fairer for you to explore what may or cannot be done in your situation. 

ALSO F.T.S!

[MarkB]

I understand your pain and frustrations.     My story in brief is as follows;   15 years service with victoria police before breaking down with trauma.   Did not get full medical diagnosis of complex ptsd until about 20 years after service.      Many police involved along the way who obviously had no idea of my condition and locked up as involuntary patient in numerous mental health facilities.    The positive was that I met a on duty psychiatrist who was able to retrospectively make a diagnosis of complex ptsd as a result of my police service.      As a result I was able to successfully launch a claim for compensation under worksafe(cover) scheme.     I now recieve payments commensurate to my police wage which is indexed every year.    I could not have achieved this stunning result without a very good and honest personal injury lawyer.           I have had some reviews by IMEs and none have found grounds to send me back to work.      It is a clunky system but once figured out it can work in your favour.       I an now studying a masters in counselling and help many in crisis with trauma.    I am especially very helpful to veterans across all the services as of course we can understand each other.     My biggest single complaint across the mental health and allied health systems is that most practitioners do not have lived experience and are counselling from a textbook.       So you are not at the end of the road my friend and just need to be put in touch with the right help.

[-Blip-]

Thank you all for your replies. Anyway it's happened again whereby a neighbour accused me of being a conspiracy theorist simply because I ask a question in a meeting. Other time it's "you must be confused again" ...It really reminds me of school yard bulling but these are adults ... 

[Jynx]

@-Blip- a little tip, if you want other members to be notified that you've responded, you can tag them using the @ symbol, then selecting (or typing if they aren't in the drop down menu) their username so it shows up in blue, like this: @MarkB @Sugarshack @chibam