Stigma remains, says former Hong Kong mental illness patient
Esther Lee, who now works in a hospital helping sufferers, says the media is partly to blame
People who have recovered from mental illness still live under the shadow of stigma, according to one Hong Kong woman with first-hand experience of the condition.
“The pressure is invisible. You don’t know how others look at you,” said Esther Lee Hau-mui, a 49-year-old who has recovered from depression.
She began suffering in 2000 after she was forced to leave her job due to a wrist wound. Her illness turned worse and she was admitted to hospital in 2009 after a suicide attempt.
A month-long hospital stay was followed by consultation every 12 weeks in a specialist outpatient clinic in a public hospital – but she said she was “not able to build up trust” with the doctor as the consultations were limited to three minutes a session.
On the proposed public-private partnership scheme, Lee said it might make it easier for patients to establish a good relationship with a doctor.
“If I could keep on seeing the same doctor in the private sector, it is easier for us to build up trust ... [In my treatment in a public hospital], I can only see the same doctor two to three times,” Lee said.
The pressure is invisible. You don’t know how others look at you