Sorry for the incoming wall of text.
I don't call the Sane support line often, but it's part of my "support plan" thing for when times get bad that my counsellor made me agree to. Today was one of those times and I called.
I was very, very saddened to learn they no longer allow you to call on a blocked or private number.
This might be hard for some to understand, but it is very important for me as I highly value my safety.
Basically, here in Queensland, we do not really have a public mental health service (we do, but it is very, very limited and small). This means that if you trigger a counsellor's Duty of Care, whether by accident or not, they will send police to check on you. QLD police are not really trained (or motivated) to deal with mental health call outs and so often treat the person they are visiting as a criminal. Abusive language is very common, and physical violence is not unheard of.
For a personal example, one of the times I had a wellness check brought upon me the officers knocked at my front door and, as I was opening it, violently kicked it injuring my wrist and causing me to fall backwards with such force I broke a shelving unit near the door (for what it's worth, I wasn't being a jerk or a smart-arse. I just opened the door in response to someone knocking on it).
I do understand the laws and rules around Duty of Care and the intention behind it. The problem is that those laws and rules are often open to the individual interpretations - and misunderstandings - of those who are required to implement it. Different mental health professionals have different tolerances for what they believe may require intervention or not. It is a fact that, for some mental health workers, merely mentioning suicide may cause them to reach for the the phone number of emergency services and intervene.
I encourage mental health professionals to ask "Are we dissuading people from using our services to seek help by exposing them, in their already low and vulnerable state, to rough, abusive and possibly violent encounters with police? Or, worse yet, are we dissuading people from seeking help from anyone at all?".
Don't believe this is an issue? Simply take a look at these very forums and see how many people are trained to self-censor the word "suicide" by replacing some of the characters, eg "s****de". SANE should ask themselves why we are worried to mention the word "suicide" within a forum that literally has a section to discuss "Managing thoughts of suicide and self-harm".
I worry this situation is not discussed enough. As far as I am aware there has been no attempt by any organisation to gather significant data on this situation.
For the last 13 years I, and a handful of others (who have sourced at least some data from lived-experienced individuals), have spent time with the state police, health department, the state's commission into trauma, and even a couple of state health ministers to try and highlight this issue. I am not advocating the abolishment of well fare checks, but for the proper conduct of those performing them and, preferably, for a trained medical professional to attend such callouts as they often do in Victoria.
Sadly, progress has been glacial and not much has really changed (well a few things have improved, like the abolishment of archaic JEOs (aka "sanctioning") which were mostly used and abused by divorcing couples attempting to discredit each other). Hence, when I feel the need to seek support I prefer to do so as anonymously - and safely - as possible.
I am greatly sadden that SANE has not understood this aspect of seeking support for mental health. SANE is a national organisation, funded by the federal government, but based in Victoria where the state's attitude to mental health is arguably far more progressive then were I live, here in Queensland. SANE's leadership may not have understood the challenges those in other states and I worry that the issue of requiring anonymity for ones own safety was not at all discussed when making this decision to block private numbers.
Whilst I acknowledge it is SANE's right to choose to block private calls or not, it is my (and many others) belief that an organisation like SANE, cannot claim to be both helping their callers whilst also exposing them to potential harm.
SANE, and similar organisations, are not responsible for the negative actions and behaviours of the Queensland police, but should acknowledge the existence of such actions and behaviours and modify their policies as such. Not every place in the country is as lucky as Victoria.
I greatly respect the support and services SANE offers and has offered over the years, and this post is not intended to chastised or discourage the organisation. However, I would urge any employee of SANE who have come across this post to pass it along and ask the organisations leadership to reconsider the blocking of private numbers.
I have also written a similar email.
Many thanks.
Jlol
