World Mental Health Day: It’s time to get the Cinderella of mental illness to the ball
10/10/2014
Dignity for Disability MLC Kelly Vincent and Greens Mental Health Spokesperson Tammy Franks MLC, have today called on the state government to fund a state-wide specialised service for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).
“On World Mental Health Day, after so many years of neglect and poor services, it would be wonderful to see the state government making a long term commitment to the Cinderella of mental illness,” says Kelly Vincent.
“Borderline Personality Disorder, affecting between one and four percent of our community, is an oft misunderstood and much maligned mental illness.
“South Australia has no specialist BPD service. Given that the stigma and silence which often shrouds mental illness is proven to be extremely damaging, it is vital that people with BPD have the opportunity to seek quality assistance.
“We have people with BPD languishing on waiting lists for Dialectic Behavioural Therapy and often presenting to Emergency Departments at our public hospitals because appropriate treatments aren’t available.
“Tammy Franks and I are calling on the government to make our EDs more effective, and spend our health dollar wisely by establishing a specialist service similar to SPECTRUM in Victoria.
“The Victorian model has proven to be both economically efficient and provide effective treatment and support to people with BPD and their families.
“This call follows the key recommendation of SA Health’s An Overview of current delivery of Borderline Personality Disorder services in the public sector across South Australia and a proposed way forwardreport by Dr Martha Kent and Dr Prue McEvoy.
“It is also worth noting that Ashlee Polkinghorne, the mother of deceased four year old Chloe Valentine, had a BPD diagnosis. Chloe’s death, and the circumstances that led to it are complex. However, perhaps, if adequate treatment options had been available to Chloe’s mother, we would not have seen a tragic end to this young life,” said Ms Vincent.
