Mental health: being there for people like Lyndon

“Eddie has been someone I could really talk to. He would check up on me once a week,” Lyndon says.

“I lived by myself. He was someone who was consistent, and someone, eventually, that I could trust.

“He became someone I could rely on.” y Around 15 per cent of those people are readmitted within 28 days of being discharged, simply because they need support in their community to cope with the challenges of everyday life to stop them from spiralling back into the acute system. y The current average costs to provide care in the hospital setting in South Australia are higher than the national average. Across Australia, the average cost per inpatient bed day in a psychiatric hospital (non-acute wards) was $953, compared with a cost per day of $1,554 for South Australia.

UnitingSA has been offering psychosocial support to South Australians for more than 20 years. Eddie currently works in the GP Access program, which is a free rehabilitation and recovery support service for people living with a mental illness who see a General Practitioner (GP) for their clinical needs.

Eddie says UnitingSA’s psychosocial support programs offer tailored, one-on-one support to people who need someone to help them to sort through a range of complex matters, including trauma, stress, money worries, health issues, housing instability and social isolation, all of which can contribute to their mental health declining into crisis.

“These are often people who are always in crisis, because they can’t emotionally regulate. They will spiral and often attempt to commit suicide, and they will call ambulances all the time,” Eddie says.

“They’ll go to hospital when they’re feeling really distressed and sit there for hours on a weekly, or even daily basis.

“Without psychosocial support, they go from crisis to crisis, and around and around in circles.”

Lyndon had found himself in need of support following years of family trauma and alcoholism that led to a nervous breakdown.

“Lyndon needed someone to talk to –someone who wasn’t judgemental or wanting something from him,” Eddie says.

“He and I can really discuss things, and I can just help him get some clarification on the way he is thinking. I can help him sort things through.”

“Having someone I could trust and rely on was so good,” Lyndon says.

“I haven’t really got anyone in my life.

“I had been in hospital two or three times, sometimes for 21 days.

“I haven’t been back in a long time.”