Posted by alexandra_k on March 31, 2016, at 0:45:47
My community health nurse left. She was kinda like my therapist, I guess. Only she wasn't like a therapist, at all... Only... I met with her every 2 weeks and we had coffee for an hour or whatever at a cafe... And it is basically the only health support I have got.
Except for a GP.
Since Community Mental Health (where they keep the p-docs) put out a trespass order on me after one of the nurses there was really very obstructive when I needed to see a doc / get a medical certificate signed after they had discharged me (so simply would not schedule an appointment with a p-doc for me at all)...
I'm not entirely sure what to do...
It bums me out that she's leaving, yeah. Not because I've lost the 'intensive psychotherapy' that this country calls it (since we are pretending we have an actual publically funded 'health system', and all)... But because she was the only mental health support I had, basically.
Mostly... She didn't hear too good. She most especially didn't hear too good once she got back from some conference, or whatever, that got her seeing me as person of category A needing intervention or strategy B, or whatever... But sometimes... Sometimes she interacted with me as a person. And we got on sort of okay. As sort of okay as you could expect me to get on with a community mental health nurse who did a Masters degree a while back... I suppose.
You might be tempted to think that the student health service at University might provide a good doctors and counselling service etc. I used to think that... It used to sort of be the case at the university where I was before... But things have just gotten swamped here. Unemployment was a huge problem and so the solution was to widen the gates on tertiary education and made it feasible for every single person who is a citizen to get loans / allowances to make enrolling in tertiary education easier than enrolling in unemployment benefit schemes. So the university is full of people... And the university gets more funding for enrolling more students... And somehow... Someway... You end up with these massive lecture halls seating 800 students or so (where a good 1/3 or so are physically incapable of keeping their mouths closed for 50 minutes). But the university will happily take their money. And when there are complaints about how poor students aren't doing well or Maaori students aren't doing well then they'll throw free pizza at them and add a couple social events...
It's all so very much cheaper than academic supports.
And the point is that along the way... Any attempt to look after student health... Got swamped. Housing, too. I don't know how or why but the university turns out to be a major property owner or whatever... And they are quite happy to broaden the market so as to offer accommodation to the spouses and children of students, even, while simultaneously constantly crying about how not every student applicant can be offered a place...
So I can't get anything in virtue of being a student. Because... Who ain't a student?
So... I could purchase health insurance... But then everything pre-existing would be ruled out. So... It seems to me... Not only don't we have a public health system, but we don't have much in the way of a private one, either. I see that people with private health insurance get... Things you would have expected the public service to provide... And those with public service healthcare... Well... Delay delay delay until the people go away or until aaaaaaaaaaw. there's nothing we can do. there there. feel better. we'll call that 'health care' provided by 'health system' that is 'equitable' and 'just' and therefore must be true - right?
Anyway... Point is... I'm not sure what to do. Nothing I suppose. Nothing I expect. Welcome home. Welcome back to... Nothing. I'm not sure how along the way somewhere somehow I forgot how sh*t things were back here. I guess I supposed that things would be better for me / different for me now. But no... They aren't so much. And there it is.
poster:alexandra_k
thread:1087688
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20150512/msgs/1087688.html