Congratulations on your victory confirmed in the last Federal budget. Your reform campaign successfully wedged the government on mental health issues during a closely contested election, and you successfully pressed those reforms with a minority government to an outcome which favors organizations associated with you. Whether through beginners luck or carefully crafted political lobbying, you won. Well done.
But. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. You took around $350 from my family a year to do that. We don't know for sure how much because the reforms haven't cascaded through the health system yet. But it looks like $350 a year. At least.
I was surprised to read in this morning's Age newspaper your assertion that mentally ill Australians and their families have not spoken out against the reforms to mental health funding you obtained in the last Australian Federal budget. My family did not get an opportunity to express an opinion. You did all your maneuvering behind closed doors, and ambushed the sitting government with your proposals without notice. Or public consultation. Perhaps if you had run public forums to explain your position you might have been surprised by the many people using the services you had subsidies removed from. Or perhaps not. After all, the subsidies for psychological services you successfully campaigned against were labelled middle class welfare, after your reform campaign.
What can be labelled can be hated. The stigma attached to mental health issues almost guarantees many won't speak out publicly against your reforms. Don't you know that?
Like you, I once campaigned long and hard, backed by a big University, for reform in a particular sector of Australian endeavor. And saw my proposals accepted, implemented by legislation and put into practice. What a joy that is, to have a life's work affirmed in public policy. Unlike you, I saw the accusations of partisanship and special interest coming, and did not stay in the position I had before the reforms. So I don't know what it is like for you now to be accused of putting your own special interest above that of other Australians. It must be awful. And I don't believe for a moment you are.
But. There Aint No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. The TAANSTAFL principle applies to politics in spades, You can't be half a political virgin. There is a price for everything, even being right. Perhaps if you don't want to be accused of partisanship you might consider stepping down from the organizations you got funded. Most of us involved in special interest politics do, sooner or later. Better to go sooner then.
Or perhaps, like me, you consider you still have something to offer to Australian life. So I'll continue to struggle to pay my own way, without the benefit of either private insurance or government support, for my own mental health needs. As long as I can. As you will have to struggle on the best you can, amidst all this political fallout you didn't see coming. Politics is like a mental illness, you don't know how debilitating it can be until circumstances and symptoms overwhelm.
It is worth mentioning that when I was young I was told it was a pity there were no services for young people with mental health issues, and I was on my own. Now I am old I'm being told there are no services for older people with mental health issues, and I'm on my own.
A couple of hundred years ago I may have been happy seeing a priest rather than a psychologist. But that was before your scientific method gutted respect for the Churches, and the child abuse scandals that psychiatrists didn't recognize the symptoms of did the rest. Now I see very clearly a future that includes making my way to a government pharmacist to be prescribed my government medication. You know, the stuff with all the side effects that leave me passive, disinterested, uncaring, dehumanized.
We aren't bullies on this blog. So I'm not going to pose a whole lot of questions that makes me look clever, and you look bad. I'd just like to point out that you cost my family around $350 a year. And you didn't ask, you took.
I guess that sooner or later I'll be forced, by the policies and politics you favour, to make my way to a government pharmacist for some government medication. You know, the stuff that makes me feel like I'm in outer space. Until then, here's some opposition to your position to consider. From a usually silent and silenced bit of Australian society taking responsibility for themselves and their own mental health. And, thanks to you, with greatly reduced government assistance. You have disadvantaged me in terms of choice, cost, and outcome. And I'm not alone.
I'd rather see a psychologist than take your medications. But it looks like I won't have a choice, if you get your way. So with the greatest respect, and only because you say there is none, I offer my opposition in principle here to your political position, and to the outcomes which you seek to achieve, if only to begin a dialogue we must have, if mental health reforms are really for all.
