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AS the walls of a lonely apartment close in around her, Tracey Elliott begins to unravel – she does not eat, she does not sleep, she simply sits.
Severe mental illness sufferers, like Tracey, have fallen through the cracks of a completely inadequate mental health care system, says local psychiatrist Brian Parsonage.
These people are often not ill enough to be in hospital, nor well enough to live on their own, Dr Parsonage says.
Tracey’s brain is like a ticking time-bomb when she is alone.The voices at the back of her mind are relentless, and unforgiving. As days pass without contact, and without care, her condition worsens.
Paranoia, brought on by her schizophrenia, takes hold as she cocoons herself inside a world of her own. But no-one can help her when the door remains closed.
She is just one of a handful of former Ellimatta Group Home residents whose conditions have reportedly deteriorated since the home closed in February last year.
Ellimatta once provided people diagnosed with schizophrenia with a bridge between hospital and living alone.
Now, the purpose-built home, is being used for administrative works by NSW Health staff.
Many of its former residents are stuck in a vicious cycle of independent living and being re-admitted to hospital.
Phyllis Knight, the mother of former Ellimatta resident Michael Knight, is brought to tears when she thinks of her 54-year-old son’s future.
Her hopes of Ellimatta re-opening have been crushed, and the possibility of a replacement seems unrealistic.
“I don’t have a lot of time left,” the 75-year-old said. “I just don’t know what’s going to happen to him once I’m gone.”
A group support home proved to be the only solution to her son’s on-going battle with his disease, she said.
“It’s such a lonely disease, but when they’re all together they function well,” she said.
Living in Ellimatta, allowed Michael to be free of his depression and the social inclusion and responsibility helped him regain a sense of self-respect.
Now, Ms Knight will often find her son in a terrible state of poor health after days of self-neglect.
A year on from its closure, some former Ellimatta residents, including Michael, are no strangers to the Port Macquarie Base Hospital’s 12-bed psychiatric inpatient unit, Ward 1A.
A woman told the Port News her brother – a former Ellimatta resident – was kept there for eight months.
Dr Parsonage said it was well-known that chronic mental illness sufferers did not respond to the rehabilitative treatment offered through inpatient wards.
He said inpatient wards provided short-term care in a highly disturbed and custodial environment.
“There is no treatment that can get them better. It’s an ongoing disability, yet there seems to be a degree of denial,” he said.
As former head of the Port Macquarie Base Hospital’s psychiatry department, Dr Parsonage said he had seen first-hand the failures of a system trying to fit square pegs into round holes.
“What these patients require is supported and supervised acommodation based on their comprehensive needs.
“I just can’t fathom what’s going on,” Dr Parsonage said.
“My impression is the service tends to turn a blind-eye rather than focus on the needs of the patients.”
Tracey has been in Ward 1A since November.
“She hadn’t been in hospital for years,” her mother Helen Elliott said. “It’s heartbreaking because every time she has an episode or a relapse, it’s like she loses something.”
After numerous hospitalisations, discharged patients can end up in Social Housing accommodation by themselves.
There, programs like the Housing and Accomodation Support Initiative (HASI) are designed to support them in their recovery process by providing stable housing, access to clinical services and accommodation support services.
Sometimes, Dr Parsonage said, those support services simply do not work for severe sufferers who can quickly become detached from reality.
“The real concern is they lead a totally impoverished life there – essentially they do nothing and they do not take care of themselves,” Dr Parsonage said.
Once they become increasingly disturbed they can finally breakdown the barriers, and be admitted into hospital.
And so the revolving-door of hospitalisation and release continues.
“It is so frustrating when we know the only thing that is going to work is long term support accommodation. It is just devastating. “We don’t know what to do,” Mrs Elliott told the Port News.
■ There are a number of support services available for those who may feel they are struggling with mental health issues. If you need someone to speak to, you can contact the Lifeline Midcoast 24-hour Crisis Counselling Service on 13 11 14, or call the Port Macquarie office on 6581 2800. You can reach the 24-hour Mental Health Access Line on 1300 369 968.