Deb Gleeson
- 13 June 2017
How do you support someone with a mental illness to get appropriate professional help?
How do you find professional help for Mental Illness?
Support to connect with appropriate professional help is one of the researched ways to help someone experiencing a mental illness or crisis.
But….it's more than that…people not only need help to find the right professional support but they need help to connect and sustain connection to that help.
So let's break down the steps
Help to find the appropriate professional help
- If the person has a GP who they like and trust start there.
- If the person does not have a trusted GP then help them connect with one. You can find GP's who have specialist training in mental health. Look on Beyond Blue's website.
- Assist the person with a mental illness to be able to ask their GP for a Mental Health Care Plan. This can provide access to other mental health professionals such as psychiatrists and psychologists.
Assist the person to prepare for their visits to GP's or other health professionals.
- this may be help the person make a list of things they want to tell their professional
- it may include making a list of questions they want answered or outcomes they want from the visit.
- you can find a good youtube video on how to do this here
Be prepared to help the person make and keep appointments. Ask the person if they would like assistance with this.
- if they say yes you can support them to make appointments
- decide with them how they would like to be reminded of appointments
- if they want you may accompany them to appointments.
Remember, don't take over, people get confidence from handling things for themselves.
Everyone is different and will have a journey to and through professional support that is different. Be patient and helpful.
Remember Mental Health is everyone's business
