Win a copy of Madness Made Me

Question: Mary, in 'Madness Made Me' you challenge readers to... "Imagine services that are run like democracies, with power coming from the bottom up. Mad people are the drivers of their own recovery and mental health workers support them from the passenger seat. Mad people also lead in the development and delivery of services -as politicians, bureaucrats, CEOs, psychiatrists, team leaders, peer workers and the rest. Madness is seen as a qualification, not something to be kept in the closet." How can older people achieve this?

Mary O’Hagan: One of the first things to consider when looking at older people’s mental health is that a lot of mental health problems start when a person is young. Everyone is different but people with labels like bipolar, schizophrenia and major depression often find their problems tend to peter out over the course of their lifetime. Issues for older people around their mental health tend to depression related to grief and loss of valued roles and dementia.
The big tension that goes on in the helping system is the families that want safety for their loved ones. You can see this with younger people with mental health problems and it is no different with older people. The system at both ends of life is over zealous ensuring security and under zealous in ensuring autonomy. The individuals that use the system tend to be much more interested in their autonomy than other people’s attempts to keep them safe. They should be fully engaged in the design of services so that they are more responsive their needs as they see them.
When older relatives start to burn pots or get into little accidents driving the response tends to be to take the cooking and driving away from them. Older people do not always want that. How can we support people to do what they want? The problem is the helping services are accountable for ensuring safety rather than autonomy so they system is not geared to meet their wishes.
Psychosis seems to be perceived by the community as a threat for the younger people that live with it. Older people generally do not have to contend with that and are seen to be generally more of a threat to themselves. There is a real sense of loss of status as a person ages and when you add a bit of depression or dementia this can make this loss of status worse.
I see a really distressing use of anti-psychotic drugs amongst older people. Anti-psychotics are often used as a management tool to keep people quiet. We need to turn our systems around to help the older people retain their autonomy while at the same time reassuring anxious families and communities. We need to overcome the fear based system.
About Mary O’Hagan
After her journey through madness, Mary O’Hagan realised the mental health system and society did more harm than good. Madness Made Me is a myth-busting account of madness and our customary responses to it through the lens of lived experience. O’Hagan’s journey took her from the psychiatric hospital to the United Nations and many places in between as a leader in the international mad movement. Her fundamental message is that madness is a profoundly disruptive but full human experience. The trouble is most people don’t see it that way, from the experts who make up clever theories about brain disease to the people down the road who have irrational fears about the mentally ill. Madness Made Me is a compelling and beautifully written book that uncovers widespread injustice. It ends with vision for a world that holds hope for people with mental distress and treats them with respect and humanity.
If you would like to win a copy of Mary's book for yourself, CLICK HERE . Competition closes 24/5/15 and is open to NZ residents only.