The ACT Team Treated Me with Disrespect
Others have shared similar experiences with me
NEW YORK CITYVOICES: Spring 2006
Return to: NYC Voices Home - Spring 2006 Voices
By Derek Senape I was a client in an assertive community treatment (ACT) team for a little over five years. I have grown beyond the services that my ACT team provided and therefore I requested that I be discharged. I am happy to say that as of the end of February 2005 I have been discharged and am now receiving independent therapy and psychopharmacology from an outside provider.
My years at the ACT team were hard and rather tumultuous despite my success and I find myself still coming to grips with the shortcomings of this type of program. Now, far be it from me to downplay their role as far as support and guidance are concerned. They were instrumental in my personal and emotional growth and were there for me when no one else was. For that I will be forever grateful. It is the subtlety in which they approach interacting with clients that I still am having difficulty adjusting to, despite having been discharged so long ago.
This breakdown in communication was a problem that I persistently brought to the attention of various case-workers as well as staff of the various programs that the ACT Team had connections with to little or no avail. I found this disheartening.
My case manager would greet me with hostility if I brought it to her attention and I was met with similar levels of anger and downright apathy when I brought this to the attention of others. It was as if I were a child asking mommy to help me because I just skinned my knee and her saying that it was all in my mind.
The ACT team treated me in a condescending way. If I am supposed to be getting treatment for my mental illness and part of that treatment is to help me feel confident about myself interacting with people in the world, wouldn't it be counter-productive to make me feel like a dumb child? The sad reality that I have come to terms with is that this is not the only program or therapeutic environment that I have experienced this in. This phenomenon seems to be the exception and not the rule. What makes it sadder is that the higher functioning clients that I know that were part of this program can attest to the same sort of treatment.
Unfortunately, in the end, I found myself transferring these feelings to the psychiatrist and have since moved on from her as well. Much to my chagrin I am still at a loss as to why I now have a much greater sense of insecurity especially when dealing with authority figures in a psychosocial or psychotherapeutic setting as well as dealing with people in the world.
On a final note, the other day I was walking with my brother and I bumped into the MICA (Mentally Ill Chemical Addiction) specialist from the ACT team. The MICA specialist made a few inappropriate comments alluding to my tenor at the ACT Team. As my brother and I were walking away, my brother turned to me and said, �Why did you let him talk to you like that?� I replied, �That is how they always talk to me.� All he could say to that was, �No wonder why you�re so screwed up.�
Return to: NYC Voices Home - Spring 2006 Voices
