Our participants say the support they received when returning home after a hospital stay due to mental distress made their transition easier and less stressful.
During 2020-21, our Hospital to Home program offered a safety net to 242 people who were being discharged from mental health wards.
The peer workers who supported them had similar experiences of mental health challenges, distress, and recovery, and so could successfully support them to navigate the complex pathways into mental health support services.
Here’s what one person we supported in our Hospital to Home program had to share:
“I felt that I am not all alone on my own in this battle with the mind and that I am not an alien in this big, big world. Being depressed is very different from having diagnosed clinical depression and only those who have gone through the ups and downs and all that is to do with depression can truly understand. And that I’m not crazy for having all these signs and symptoms.
“Only those who have gone through the ups and downs and all that is to do with depression can truly understand.”
Before going into the program, my concerns were primarily centred on the transition from hospital to work. But in reality, work became the least of my worries and I was surprised to find that my quality of life was severely affected after discharge. Emotional peer support became vital to me, and this program provides just that support.
Thank you so much for going through this journey with me. I don’t think I would have retained my sanity if I wasn’t in the program. I felt very isolated and alone, as if I was an alien on a different planet and I was going insane having all these signs and symptoms of depression.
“Emotional peer support became vital to me, and this program provides just that support.”
I was still in denial when I went into the program but it’s easier now to come to terms with clinical depression, that having depression is not a stigma and it is a medical condition to be taken seriously.
No one chooses to have depression.”
Supporting people to return home after a hospital stay
MIFWA’s Hospital to Home Program is a peer‑led service supporting people who have been in hospital due to experiencing mental distress to return home and into the community. Our Peer Workers provide valuable support and understanding around accessing services, recovery and building the life you want to live.
For further information about the Hospital to Home Program, click here, send us an email info@mifwa.org.au or give us a call on 9237 8900.
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