In The Tea Room this week Dr Karen Williams, medical director of the Ramsey Clinic Thirroul, talks about the why the hospital is needed.

Women who have PTSD are too often diagnosed with multiple personality disorder, Dr Williams says. It’s very different to diagnoses and treatments available to the defence force patients Dr Williams has previously worked with.

“We don’t tell a solider returning from deployment “You have a mental illness”, we diagnose PTSD and provide a variety of individualised treatment including yoga and therapy dogs. But for the one in five women in Australia who have experienced domestic violence there’s almost nothing,” Dr Williams says.

Mental health wards often have no locks on the doors and are shared with men who might be acutely intoxicated or acutely psychotic and where people are often screaming, Dr Williams says, adding that women are unlikely to get better in those spaces.

Dr Williams provides clinical advice such as guiding GPs to look for sleep issues and chronic headaches that are unresponsive to treatment. She also cautions against sedating women with PTSD during the day.

Becc Spradau, diversity and inclusion specialist, also joins us in The Tea Room this episode. In a candid interview she shares her experience with PTSD caused by sexual assault as a child. Becc has a message for the GP who finally diagnosed the PTSD.

“I am just so very grateful that you took the time and you listened. You were able to really see what was going on and point me in the direction of some light,” she says.

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