Micaela and Calista

Micaela has complex trauma and bipolar disorder.

Highly educated, she became unwell for the first time in her 20s.

She was placed in a locked psychiatric ward with drug users and people with violent behaviours. One young patient was so terrified she clung to Micaela at night and couldn’t sleep on her own.

‘She was like a frightened animal,’ Micaela told the Royal Commission. ‘She was completely disoriented.’

When Micaela’s mum Calista visited, she ‘found it quite horrific’.

Calista brought Micaela home and helped her get counselling, as there was ‘quite a bit of trauma’.

Micaela was very depressed and didn’t feel she would ever be able to work. She unsuccessfully applied for the disability support pension and eventually got a job through a Centrelink program.

Shortly after, Micaela began a relationship with her boss.

‘She was very vulnerable,’ Calista told the Royal Commission.

‘She started experiencing domestic violence … a lot of it was unrecognised psychological violence … And perpetrators know what they can get away with.’

Her partner and boss started receiving a carer payment. Micaela felt trapped in the relationship. She was in and out of mental health units, rarely seeing the same doctor twice.

‘There’s no official means for recognising family violence or abuse,’ she said. ‘Particularly when it is psychological and particularly when it involves a person with known mental health concerns.’

One time, Michaela was hospitalised after her partner seriously assaulted her. At the hospital, he ‘spun his story’ and medical staff ended up sedating Micaela.

‘He got to watch me being restrained and injected,’ Micaela said. ‘If mental health was taken out, I think services would have been more sensitive.’

Micaela was involuntarily admitted to a locked mental health unit.

‘Which was very much like a dungeon,’ Calista said. ‘It was down in the basement. It was horrific. People didn’t see the light of day for weeks.’

Calista said Micaela’s partner was ‘hoodwinking’ hospital staff.

‘There wasn’t enough awareness of domestic violence and trauma to see what was happening.’

Shortly after, Micaela had a child and decided to leave the relationship.

She tried to get a restraining order but police told her the incident was ‘too far back’.

Her now ex-partner ended up taking the child.

Micaela begged police for help, but they told her they couldn’t do anything because ‘she was unwell’.

Calista warned police Micaela was at risk of suicide if she was separated from her child.

‘And they said, “She won’t suicide. She’s too selfish.”’

Micaela became severely depressed and was hospitalised. The hospital staff asked the father to allow her to breastfeed the child, but he refused.

The court eventually ordered him to return the child.

Some months later, Micaela went to court to finalise child custody arrangements.

Micaela’s lawyers told her not to tell the judge she had a disability – ‘that would be a negative’.

‘[The judge] trivialised domestic violence with the perpetrator in the room,’ Calista said. ‘That’s been a way for him to continue the psychological abuse because he’s done it through the court system.’

Micaela found it very hard to function in the family court environment, ‘often to her detriment’.

‘She was often forced to make quick decisions. I remember the final parenting order where there was all this buzz. And I could see she wasn’t processing stuff. Someone with a disability due to a mental health condition should not be put under that sort of pressure.’

Micaela ended up sharing custody.

‘She’s still in that situation where she’s negotiating with him.’

Micaela is now seeing a private psychiatrist and is more stable.

‘We definitely had a better scenario hooking up with the private psychiatrist than we did with community mental health,’ Calista said. ‘If you could take that private psychiatrist somehow into the public system when you go, that would be a better scenario. Patients need to have their experiences validated.’