Recommendations made in two damning reports into Australia’s ability to treat patients with borderline personality disorder (BDP) have been ignored for two years by state and federal governments.
The reports detailed an illness that poses serious challenges to frontline medical staff.
Senior psychiatrist Dr Martha Kent was a lead author on both reports for the federal and South Australian governments on how to deal with BDP patients, and says the label can be misleading. Rather than referring to a problem with a patient’s personality, the name traditionally refers to the mix of symptoms located on the border between psychosis and neurosis….
Melbourne clinic points way to future
The Spectrum clinic in Melbourne is one of only a handful of clinics that specialise in borderline personality disorder treatment. Set up 15 years ago by the Victorian government, it is the model that Dr Martha Kent recommended should be replicated all over the country. Dr Sathya Rao is the clinical director at Spectrum. “It is no longer true to believe that borderline personality disorder is not a treatable condition … it’s a myth,” he said. “However, treatments are to be undertaken by people who are trained to provide this sort of a service, and we have very specific psychological treatments that work for these patients.”… –Alex Mann, March 6, 2014, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
