Mental Health Workers Should Be Mentally Healthy

[MainerMikeBrown]

Years ago, I received mental health services from a mental health agency, as I was having a hard time struggling with mental health issues, including anxiety.

What this agency did for me at the time was that they sent mental health workers to where I was living. They'd spend the day with me, helping me get through each day.

This agency had good mental health workers who I felt did a good job. They really cared, and did everything they could to help me cope with everyday life.

However, one of the mental health workers they had recently hired at the time was someone I was not so happy with.

The reason is when he first started working with me, he told me that he had been hospitalized just six months beforehand. And he told me not to tell anyone.

When I work with mental health workers and mental health professionals, I expect them to be emotionally healthy. Anything less is unacceptable.

I never did tell anyone that this person I was working with had been hospitalized just six months prior to working with him. But if I ever start working with a mental health worker who tells me that he or she was hospitalized not long ago, I will handle it much differently. I won't put up with it.

[cloudy black]

hello MainerMikeBrown. gosh your mental health service sounds unbelievably good! me i have just had to "cope" at best and at worst got some Pratt telling me absolute codswallop. (bullshit!). but i guess you had to pay for yours. i have always slipped through the net as not being "sick" enough to merit any/much tangible help. and to be honest when i see what was on offer it was the wisest thing to stay away well away.

a few years back i had been in a hospital environment where i was a day patient, as a referral. there was a relaxation group and a therapy group which i walked out of because it was so rubbish and like i said earlier i did not have the deep seated issue that the other individuals had and so i felt like a fish out of water. for me the hospital was more about getting out of the flat and eating something. that was the positive that i took from it. what was interesting is that i could not tell who were the clients and who were the staff! and that was after a few months.

so it got me to thinking what are people's motivation for working in an mental "health" environment and i kinda figured that if someone has been through it they hopefully will have more compassion and actual experience. and not text book this is how to do it. i cant speak for your experience. but for me if someone has experienced MH issues then thats a good thing not bad.

its the staff who have not had a diagnosis of MH issues are the dangerous ones in an MH environment. because in a psychiatric hospital there would be constant triggers. and i reckon i saw at least two of them! one of which got the sack for cruelty.

for me ALWAYS, its actions not words that speak louder to me.