This is an except from a recent investigation showed on the ABC in Australia.....

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A landmark mental health study has revealed disturbing complaints of doctors failing patients, who report being shunned or avoided by health professionals.
The Mental Health Council report, obtained by the ABC's 7.30, found more than one-third of those surveyed were also advised to lower their expectations in life because of their mental illness.

This applied to patients with schizophrenia, personality disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

The report also shows that almost half of mental health carers believe doctors behave differently when they discover a person's mental health history.

In any given year up to four million Australians fight a mental illness, for whom public stigma is a huge hurdle.

The new study set out to quantify the problem in a survey of 400 patients and 200 carers.
GPs cop the most complaints of poor care, followed closely by psychiatrists. However psychologists fare the best.

The report includes the traumatic personal stories of mental health consumers.
"I'm very nervous about sitting in a hallway with 'mental health' plastered against the wall in a public area," one person said.

"I've been in the emergency area of the hospital and overheard a treating doctor asking another doctor if it was a full moon," another said.

"The staff attitude towards me changes when they realise I have a mental health history - it's as if they think they can catch it off me," another patient said.

"We sat in a room with a psychiatrist telling our 18-year-old daughter she should stop expecting anything from life because she has a mental illness," said another.

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I wanted to post this because I too have been at the receiving end of cruel behaviour from the very health care workers that were meant to be there to help me....I am still struggling with the aftermath of what happened to me. I have been told that it depends on the area you live in as to whether you can expect to obtain adequate health care. A friend of mine living with schizophrenia moved from Victoria and is shocked at the difference in her mental health care, here. This makes me wonder what it is like in America. Do you have similar experiences?