Mikayla
Content Warning: These stories are about violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation and may include references to suicide or self-harming behaviours. They may contain graphic descriptions and strong language and may be distressing. Some narratives may be about First Nations people who have passed away. If you need support, please see Contact & support.
‘My entire experience … has been, and continues to be, completely dehumanising.’
Mikayla is in her early 60s. She has mental health conditions that include dissociative identity disorder, depression and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Mikayla experienced neglect when she ended up in the emergency department of a regional hospital where, ‘instead of being treated as mentally ill,’ she was treated ‘as a queue jumping attention seeker’.
The incident and ongoing neglect began a few years ago when Mikayla was admitted to the local hospital after a ‘partial overdose’. The nurse gave her ‘a sarcastic lecture’. ‘She didn’t even listen to me,’ Mikayla said.
Mikayla was sent home, where she then overdosed. A local health care service called an ambulance, but when she reached the hospital the emergency doctor accused Mikayla of queue jumping.
‘It took me five hours to receive any treatment. As a result I have liver damage and an optic nerve stroke and PTSD.
‘I also had to stop going to university because my PTSD was triggered and my brain did not store and retrieve information in the same way.’
When Mikayla lodged an official complaint with the hospital, they responded that ‘it was all in her head’. She then lodged a complaint with the relevant complaints commission. Mikayla said her complaint wasn’t investigated properly, and the commission misplaced important documentation proving Mikayla had acquired liver damage. As a result, ‘it has been a case of he said she said … a complete waste of time’.
Mikayla told the Royal Commission that there is a ‘stereotyping’ of people with psychosocial disabilities as ‘mentally incapable’ and an assumption that the disability will be ‘physically displayed in posture or speech’. When people with mental health issues don’t present this way, they are often treated as ‘malicious and destructive’.
Mikayla recommends that an advocate with lived experience of suicide be present at all emergency departments to ensure the hospital and associated mental health care units are following their policies and procedures, so that vulnerable people are ‘not left alone or left feeling dehumanised or devalued’.
Disclaimer: This is the story of a person who shared their personal experience with the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability through a submission or private session. The names in this story are pseudonyms. The person who shared this experience was not a witness and their account is not evidence. They did not take an oath or affirmation before providing the story. Nothing in this story constitutes a finding of the Royal Commission. Any views expressed are those of the person who shared their experience, not of the Royal Commission.