Amber Hollingsworth, a counselor, uses the Netflix film Brain on Fire to show why family advocacy matters when sudden mental-health symptoms might have a medical cause. She explains confidentiality barriers that block provider-family communication and gives concrete advice on sharing information with clinicians effectively.
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Okay. This week I watched this show on Netflix. Those of you that know me know I'm a huge Netflix fan. It was called Brain on Fire. It was a great story about a young girl in her 20s who was functioning completely normally, following her dream, working for a newspaper in New York as a reporter, and then all of a sudden started showing all these mental health symptoms. I won't spoil the movie for you, but what I will tell you is the fact that if this girl's parents had not advocated for her, had not stuck in there and pushed the doctors and the nurses and the psychiatrists that were treating her to look closer, this young girl would have died. And this is a true story. I really want to encourage you. If you have a loved one struggling with a substance abuse or a mental health problem, I know how absolutely frustrating it can be if they're over 16 years old. Treatment providers, doctors, nurses, counselors, psychiatrists, they're going to resist talking to you as much as possible. It's because there's this whole confidentiality thing, and the person has to sign consent and they have to sign all these releases. And clinical staff, they just get super worried about whether or not they're going to be breaking a rule, and they're trying to keep the boundaries and they're trying to protect themselves. And I understand that, you know, I'm a professional, too, and you got to look out for yourself. You don't want to get yourself in trouble. The problem is trying to treat these young people with mental health and substance abuse problems and not having the family involved is just ineffective. It doesn't work. You're probably not going to get the whole story. Even if the person's not lying to you, they probably just don't see the whole picture. They can't give you all the information. And so it's not so much about trying to pry into your child's life, it's trying to advocate and make sure that. That they really get the care that they need. You can really see that demonstrated in the movie Brain on Fire. And in this situation, it turned out to be more of a medical condition and not necessarily a psychiatric condition, which they were thinking at first when this young girl came down with all these symptoms. But whether it's medical or psychological, if you have a young person in your life who's struggling with an issue like this, you're going to have to arm yourself with the right information. You. You're going to have to find out what's good treatment and what's not, what's really going on and make sure the treatment providers that are trying to help your loved one really have all the information. Because without all the information, I can guarantee you they're not going to be making the right choices that are going to actually help your child, your grandchild or your loved one or your friend get better. Don't give up. Don't stop fighting for your loved one. You can find lots of answers and solutions right here on this YouTube channel or on our website at hopeforfamiliesrecoverycenter.com there's tons of information out there designed specifically to arm family members with the right information and the right advice to advocate for your loved one and to make sure they get good care and that they get into recovery. So here's the deal. Treatment providers can't always communicate with you just because legally they're not allowed to. But you can always communicate to your child or your family members or your friends. Treatment providers, you can call them up, you can send an email and you can talk to the nurse. You can say, listen, you don't even have to tell me if you're seeing them, but I know you're seeing so and so. You don't have to say anything. I just need to give you this piece of information. I just need to let you know they've been on these prescriptions or that they also see this other doctor or that they're having these symptoms. And it might, you might get a little resistance from those providers, but as long as you're not putting them in a bad position, you're just giving them information, all you're going to be doing is helping. Now, if you're constantly bombarding those people with constant information and questions, then you're going to get a little bit more resistance because they're going to see you as intrusive. So make sure you do this in a productive, advocating, succinct and efficient way, not an overwhelming way. And that's going to be the most effective way you can help your loved one get the right treatment.
