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Even telling psychologists partial plans will cause them to freak out. Here in Australia they do have professional association guidelines (which boil down to th
by throwaway34985 8y ago
Even telling psychologists partial plans will cause them to freak out. Here in Australia they do have professional association guidelines (which boil down to there must a realistic, specific plan with timing to warrant breaching privacy), and the Privacy Act has provisions as to when privacy can be violated (also very narrowly permitted), but you're talking about psychologists here as opposed to engineers or lawyers. So they will break the law, you will end up scheduled, and your mental health will end up an order of magnitude worse than at any point in your life.
I'd suggest if you are suicidal and you have already been seeing a specific psychologist for a while, the best thing to do is stop seeing that psychologist as their approach is not offering you hope. Switch to someone with a completely different treatment modality. Psychologists are as varied in quality as any other profession, but if you are increasing losing hope and thinking about suicide, it's time to switch.
- the_jeremy 8y agoSure, I should have been more clear. I meant that you can tell a therapist that you are having suicidal ideation (thoughts about suicide) without a problem, as long as it's clear you don't have any specific plans or timelines to act on them. I agree that a partial plan could possibly trigger a "better safe than sorry" approach to putting you in emergency detainment.
- throwaway34985 8y agoMy experience was I had a full plan, but deliberately avoided disclosing the legal triggers, expecting the law would apply on two levels: (a) the psychologist did not meet the threshold to breach privacy and (b) even if scheduled the legal requirement to only provide treatment in the least restrictive environment would ensure I am released given I have a demonstrable level of compliance in the community. What actually happened was the psychologist violated the law by telling them I had unusually strong legal knowledge of the Mental Health Act and as such I would say whatever is required to not be scheduled. So I got scheduled on information they should not even have, and did not assess the minimally restrictive criteria competently because they had reason to believe I was unusually knowledgeable of the legislation. These days I have a mental health lawyer ready to call the moment these people look at me the wrong way and I'll send him in. My level of cooperation with mental health will be zero in the future. At least in NSW the requirements to be scheduled are not strictly followed, so having a lawyer on retainer is the easiest way of dealing with these lawless do-gooders.