The media creates distress to suicidal patients.
You may recall the blog I wrote about the hospital getting rid of the Mental Health crisis line (The Psychiatric Triage) at the Latrobe Regional Hospital. I was very distressed about them getting rid of it, as I was one of the many depressed, psychotic and suicidal mental health patients that depends on that phone lines services.
It turns out the media made up a whole lot of bullshit about it.
At my last psychiatric appointment, the case manager asked what I’d been distressed about and why I couldn’t sleep. It was then that my boyfriend asked them if they would be eradicating the psychiatric Triage.
The psychiatric nurse said that the newspaper had twisted the truth – they weren’t getting rid of it, but just combining the day service and night service so that they could operate from the same building.
It made me think, why would the media twist a story like that?
Obviously they wanted attention and for sales of their newspaper to rise, but I’m sure they could have stated the facts instead of distressing all of the mental health patients in this region.
The media need to think about what they’re doing before they decide to publicise lies.
