Martine

Martine, in her early 50s, lives in a small town where health services are under-resourced and under pressure, particularly in relation to mental health. It has been difficult, and at times impossible, to access the support she needs to manage the complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD), depression and anxiety she lives with.

Martine told the Royal Commission her mental health issues are related to trauma from child sexual abuse. She feels she has to be careful when seeking counselling or psychological support.

‘There is a level of trust that needs to be built up before you are willing to broach the subject or trust someone with your story,’ she explained.

Continuity of care is very important to her, but she finds it difficult to access in her home town.

‘The problem is that every time I got to a place of trusting someone and sharing my story, the counsellor left town within a couple of months. I was left feeling abandoned and that what I had shared was too much for them to handle. That they had left because what I shared was so horrible that I had scared them off. I was left feeling rejected, dirty and unworthy. I would shove the emotions down for a couple of years, until I became so unwell that I was willing to give counselling a try again.’

For a while Martine saw a visiting psychologist, who came to town once a month. She decided to ‘jump right in the deep end’, assuming the psychologist would soon leave her role and hoping to make progress before that happened. For their third session, Martine had a two-hour appointment.

‘We got to the most difficult part of my story to tell and the session ended. She did not ask if I was all right, or if I had any support over the next month. She did not offer a phone call and she left me hanging in a state of trauma. She said that she would see me in a month's time when she was next down, and I felt vulnerable and wanted to self-harm.’

Martine went to her doctor ‘looking for another solution’, but he was ‘unable to help’ Martine, or to ‘suggest anything’.

Martine saw counsellors at a sexual assault resource centre in another town remotely, but the centre lost its funding. Another organisation took over its role, and a counsellor there said they couldn’t help Martine.

‘She told me that my situation was too complicated and too difficult for them to handle. She was unable to even offer me another solution when I asked her where I could find more help.’

Without any mental health supports, Martine had a bad episode of C-PTSD and ended up in hospital. The hospital had full notes of her medical history, but she suspects no-one read them.

‘For the first three days that I was in hospital the only time that I saw a nurse was to have my blood pressure taken, temperature checked, or asked if I had a bowel movement. I would really like to know how this helps me with my mental health.’

Martine is now seeing a psychologist at a mental health service regularly, face to face, and this is making a difference. She just hopes the service won’t be defunded.

‘The job that these guys do here has been amazing and I have seen changes within myself. I would love to see that extended. I would like to see, you know, government funding, you know, extended. And even, yeah, increased so more people in rural and remote communities can be helped.’