I sat alongside the chief psychiatrist during the working groups reviewing the Mental Health Act. Never forget the day we discussed the prescribing of psychotropics. He described a system where GPs seek permission to prescribe

Not only that, they were drugs intended for short term use - 2 weeks, with a repeat if absolutely necessary. The expectation was that repeat prescriptions would be rare.

I let the chief psychiatrist (cp) know that we had numerous #disability advocacy consumers who had been on these drugs for 5 or more years, often without ever seeing their GP for prescriptions.

It was just too awkward & difficult to get them to the doctor so people had given up bothering. Support workers would organise the scripts over the phone.

I'll never forget the look on the chief psychiatrist's face. He suddenly realised these people were effectively outside a system built to minimise the use of quite severe & often harmful medication. The law was doing nothing to protect them.

I wasn't an expert in the mental health space, so I'd never known the massive structure of laws & protocols that was being sidestepped multiple times every day.

The chief psychiatrist and I had a joint moment of clarity

On top of that we were examining the use of substitute decision making (guardianship) & how such practices were being consented to by guardians, usually at the behest of service providers.

Again, the laws were based on episodic mental health circumstances, not on people with cognitive disabilities that weren't going away. So, people ended up on drug regimes for years, decades, that were intended for 2 weeks

I have no reason to believe that anything has changed. It's simply how things are done in #disability. Yep, it's ghastly, and wrong, but there are powerful vested interests who refuse to countenance change.

So, nothing I've heard at the #DisabilityRC so far has been news to me. My disappointment is that a systemic failure is being strung out as individual case studies. They're the tip of a huge iceberg

So, while you're all gasping over single horrible case studies, I'm dipping out for a few days. You see I've heard it all before, & I realise today that I don't have to go back round & listen to it all again.

This is the,stuff I've been telling you about for decades that you didn't want to believe & gaslighted me and numerous activists & advocates over. It's why we needed #DisabilityRC but that doesn't mean I have to hear it yet again. See you in a few days