Prue

‘Discrimination laws, they’re not going to fix discrimination. They’re too inaccessible … Just writing these laws it’s not worth much if people can’t access them.’

As a teenager, Prue, now mid-30s, had anorexia and self-harmed. She was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD), depression and anxiety.

She engaged with ‘a lot of health services’ and they ‘saved her life’ numerous times.

By her mid-20s she was ‘doing quite well’. ‘[I’d] overcome the eating disorder, overcome self-harm, hadn’t had any crises.’

Prue told the Royal Commission she felt she ‘was starting slowly to get there’ until she began experiencing ‘some very severe physical health problems’. She was in terrible pain and couldn’t walk. ‘For around six years I was mostly in a wheelchair or using crutches … I couldn’t even pick up a pen. It was in my hands as well.’

Doctors said her symptoms were psychosomatic and diagnosed her with conversion disorder. Hospital staff told her she couldn’t have disability services because ‘that’s just going to encourage you to be ill’.

Prue had to ask her friends for help but after a while they wanted to know what was going on. She told them, ‘They say it’s in my head, but I don’t know if it is.’ It affected her friendships and she ‘stopped asking for help’.

Prue’s relationship with her parents broke down because she needed more help than they could give.

When she fell or couldn’t move she would ring the ambulance to help her.

In emergency, staff were rude and would humiliate her. One time she was told not to come back unless she was dying. Other times they told her she could only see a doctor if she walked into the cubicle. She told them she couldn’t walk but they ignored her saying, ‘We know you can walk, so walk.’

‘I really think they believed I was faking the symptoms.’

Prue later found out there were alerts on her file warning she had BPD and should not be treated in hospital. They also warned she was a drug seeker searching for morphine.

‘If I’d come in without any of this history, I wouldn’t have been treated like that.’

Prue started experiencing severe, recurrent urinary tract infections and needed hospital treatment. Although she had a letter from her GP saying, ‘her pain is real, her symptoms are real’, the hospital refused to treat her.

Staff routinely called security guards to remove her.

‘I would be sent home in a taxi and … there were times I had to ask a taxi driver to help me get inside.’

Prue’s mental health deteriorated and she experienced a breakdown.

‘It was the worst period of my life.’

Prue made a complaint to the hospital. They defended their staff telling her she had BPD and needed to be treated in the community.

Prue’s psychologist encouraged her to file an anti-discrimination complaint.

When she tried to access her medical records the hospital refused to release them and tried to intimidate her.

They told her, ‘Your mental health is so fragile, and a discrimination claim is a really stressful thing to do. We think that if you do that process, you’ll die.’

Prue had to make an application to the state human rights commission to get access to her records. She found it incredibly difficult to find legal representation and navigate the process. She said the commission didn’t seem to care about her discrimination complaint – they just wanted her to settle. She really felt that they just wanted it to go away.

At mediation, the hospital agreed to remove all the alerts off Prue’s file.

During this time Prue applied for a credit card so she could access private health care. Specialists continue to treat her for rheumatoid arthritis and bladder retention.

It took more than five years to pay off the debt, but Prue’s glad she did it.

‘I’m really doing quite well. I feel mentally healthy, happy. It’s great. I’m back in work.’