What is the worst thing a mental health worker can do?

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Wasn’t sure where to post this but basically, I work in a mental health recovery centre and am currently doing my training. However I was wondering if there was anything anyone here wanted to say about dos and donts when working with autistic people as a lot of the people who see us either are autistic or suspect that may be the case.

I only have my own experience as an autistic person so I’m curious to hear your takes.

Last edited by lvpin on 11 Jun 2022, 2:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I once saw a mental health worker who laughed in my face when I told him that I had been sexually assaulted by a woman.

Don't do this.

Attempted to have put on a 3 day hold , without discussing it with me. First. Or explaining what was going on .
Especially since my father had just died .

If someone seems very introverted they can be confused for a person of low IQ. So don't talk in a babying or condescending way
.. although that's not too bad. It's just unnecessary.

You can't measure quality

There is only one "worst" thing, and it is subjective

Some people keep saying something is "the worst" but they have not considered everything

A mental health worker enjoyed treating me like I needed to go to jail or anything of the sort.

I thought she was really great at first, but over the course of time,
she became more like a police detective, therefore I stopped seeing her cold turkey.

I could not tolerate her behavior towards me.

It's been about four years & the mental health worker of whom I am a client of
has been very much the opposite.

Have sex with patients and lose their license.
It happened to my former psych.

^
Umm....but not with you I hope.

Nope. I wouldda decked him. ^

He thought he was hot stuff.
He looked and acted kind of like a young Jim Carrey.
There were multiple disciplinary hearings which are all on public record.
He lost his wife, custody of his babies, his house, and his profession.

Don't tell them they're unfixable. It happened to me years ago, when I was going through a severe mental health phase. I thought I was getting the help and having someone to talk to, only for them to tell me that I cannot be healed, then they cut off my services. Plus the woman who I saw had been through mental health problems herself, so you'd think she'd have more of an understanding.

Don't tell them that their problems are trivial. A lot of Aspies dwell on the small things that make them anxious and it can seem catastrophic to them. I've had a social worker hint to me that my worries were silly.

Don't try and diagnose them with autism just because they're pouring out their anxieties and fears. People without autism can have anxiety disorders too, so don't just assume someone has autism just because they feel things more than others do. Yes, I've had this happen to me a few months ago. I had a phonecall appointment with a counsellor and she never looked at my notes that were passed on to her by the person that referred me, even though I knew it was included that I was diagnosed with both ASD and ADHD. I told the person who referred me that I'm not happy with discussing the ASD although I still wanted the counsellor to know about it - just to avoid the awkward conversation that still happened. She suddenly started asking if I'd ever heard of autism and that if I could be autistic, so it was obvious she hadn't read my notes beforehand.
So, if there are notes about a client, do read them carefully before meeting the client for the first time, because some clients feel uncomfortable with discussing certain things.

Also remember that some Aspies are embarrassed about autism so don't try to push the discussion on to autism unless they want you to. Try to see them as an individual instead of a label with a pile of symptoms.

Good luck.

No idea on worst, as that's subjective. For me, as someone that's literal and direct, who mostly only answers questions and won't bring up things unrelated to the question, asking the right questions is important. This will be Autism.

Something that might be useful: ask the patient what they want. This gives the practitioner an idea on what goals to work towards. A lot of the time, the practitioner assumes things based on their own cognition, which isn't always the best thing, especially when treatment is long-term and not in an acute setting. The latter is used to best stabilize the patient, the former is to help them function better in the world.

That's the bloody problem!
They only think men can assault.
I read about a guy who refrained from calling the police when his woman assaulted him. Why? He did not want to get arrested himself even if hadn't assualted anyone.
Did he ever callthe police? I fon't rememberwhat happened but I think they somehow arrested the woman sooner or later.

You will hear people say:
"Women are fragil fand weak so they can't do all of that!". Well, many women are stronger than men.

In my case, it was missing the obvious. I had been investigating my dysfunctional family pattern for 15 years, sometimes with professional help before I chanced across a description of AS and everything made sense. Since then, I had one good counsellor who I would describe as a talented remedial parent. Another was overconfident and gave bad advice on how to cope with neighbours. I also had a major disaster with the apprentice of a talented healer who had no talent, and only tried to imitate the master without understanding anything. I've also had a lot of trouble with advice being considered unisex. A crying male does not evoke the same response as a crying female, and all the other reactions are different too.

That's really messed up. I can't speak for everyone but I know in my job that we have to report potential crimes we hear about straight away to the police unless they happened in a different country. I'm sorry you didn't receive the understanding that you should have.

Listen

So many professionals like to fix things. They fall back on their study knowledge and experience, but forget that the person in front of them is a unique individual that doesn't fit into an assumed box

One psychologist wrote "depression with delusions" or something like that on my record

Next appointment, I was like, "what are the delusions and when did they start"?

He was like is your thinking always accurate to reality?"

"No"

"What's an example of a time when your thinking was not accurate to reality?"

"Nobody thinking is always accurate to reality"

He put "depression without delusions" on the next report, but the previous report, he did not change. He did not apologize. The diagnosis matches the prescription. He did not say "thank you for helping me do my job better, even though you less educated and younger than me".

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But that is not "the worst" thing he could have done


He could have raped, vandalized or exterminated my worthless corpse, but anyone could do that




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(Maybe the OP is trying to ask "what is the worst thing a counselor could do, that nobody that is not a counselor could also do?")