I came across this post the other day and I felt the strong urge to ask our community, especially those who are seeking or had seek help with regards to mental health with our public healthcare system.
Long story short. My spouse is what you consider as someone with a history of mental illness. Those who have suffered disorders know that it is not easy to just “be happy lah”. It is literally a problem that even the patient knows that they aren’t “normal” and they know they need help. Besides various ways to cope, like family support, distant from triggers, taking breaks etc, sometimes you really have to seek professional help. Not just someone to talk to. Actual medication and proper review and discussion.
My wife tried visiting private practices for a while, but unfortunately we couldn’t sustain it as private practices were REALLY expensive. We felt like only they rich could have the luxury of visiting private practices (the irony when alot of patients comes from not so well to do background)
Hence we diverted our option to public healthcare. Which is to visit the health and mind clinic in the polyclinic. In the beginning we thought we could see the light at the end of the tunnel, hoping that our public healthcare system could really deliver mental healthcare like what all the promotional advertisements or posting were suggesting.
Unfortunately we were greatly disappointed.
Throughout the past year, appointments were 3 to 4 months apart. During each appointment, the doctors asked basic questions and gave very basic replies like “How are you feeling these days / has your mood improve since the last visit/ do you have any side effects. Ok good you can proceed to the next room.” and then they’ll review to either increase or reduce dosage. Each appointment last merely 5 to 10 minutes and the next follow up is 4 months later.
Don’t get me wrong. The medications did helped. It helped reduce her anxiety attacks. The medications were designed to control their emotions, keeping them stagnant and not worst. But other than that, the clinic did nothing further to aid her in coping. They didn’t share with her coping techniques. And most of all, it felt like a lip service care without any empathy. Just throwing you the medicine and you have to deal with it yourself in the next 4 months. If you can’t deal with it, they’ll just increase your dosage and wait for another 4 months
At the end of the day, during the 3 to 4 months of wait between appointments, we have to figure out own coping techniques with the help of the medications.
My wife has since been much better but she has strongly remarked that besides the medicine, the health and mind clinic did nothing else to help her and she wouldn’t attribute her recovery to the clinic.
Perhaps what we need from the public healthcare system is a more thorough overhaul. However, it is likely that they’re understaffed. More patients to doctors ratio. So only the severe cases like severe self harm cases will get priority care. But everyone else falls through the cracks and left to struggle and deal with it on their own because they are not deemed as urgent cases. The shortage of manpower in this area needs to be fixed first so that more patients struggling with mental health issues can seek help in a more timely and regular manner, instead of being left to float by themselves and trying not to drown.
This is possibly why lots of people have second thoughts about seeking help. Precisely because it is so difficult to get through all this barriers. A lot of time, effort, money, and yet only getting irregular appointments and lack of care and empathy. We need a good look and review of our public healthcare system with regards to emotional and mental welfare. I’m not sure through what means we can communicate this feedback?

Netizens’ comments
Many years ago, when I was a university student, I went through a period of disordered eating and my mother brought me to a psychiatrist in the public sector (can’t remember which hospital)
Looking back was a really traumatic experience because all he wanted to do was to put me on medication that increase my appetite so that I can eat more and not be underweight…But wtf, I was be in the throes of an eating disorder and terrified to gain weight?! Obviously I didn’t go back, and struggled with it for a good number of years before I overcame it myself.
I did a rotation at IMH as a pharmacy graduate and got to experience the providence of mental health services, pretty intimately I would say. I guess it helped me understand the position of specific healthcare professionals for each part of the patient journey. The psychiatrist assess your condition, look for side effects from medication, make sure it’s doing its job keeping you stable and that’s pretty much the bulk of it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a really essential role. Private sector doctors may be more empathetic (I know a good number professionally) I think just by virtue of them having more time with each patient.
But by and large psychotherapy is (and should be) referred to therapists who is more trained in handling such the therapy part of things. Some psychiatrists may be trained in psychotherapy, but why do it when you have a trained therapist to offload that segment for you while you focus on the medication part of things for all the patients waiting in the line?
It’s unfortunate due to lack of manpower and abysmal working conditions, you don’t have enough therapists in the public sector to service everybody timely.
There are many very good psychotherapy and counselling services operating privately and they can be very good choices for those who need more intensive follow-up. I’ve had the opportunity to work (professionally) with a few and I’m happy to share resources – slide in my DMs. I’m sure they would have been very helpful in my own recovery journey if I knew about them early.
But as many rightly pointed out, specific conditions like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder require lifelong medication that is prescribed by the psychiatrist. There’s also a lot of overlap in symptoms for different conditions and misdiagnosis may happen (of course unfortunate) so that is why many people may not feel the mood stabilising despite medication from the psychiatrist, and the psychiatrist keeps changing medication in order to find the right one, and sometimes it may be helpful to seek second opinion et cetera. I understand that it is frustrating and makes some lose the little faith they have in the system but that is the nature of diagnosis and treatment of complex cases.
At the same time, regular therapy to learn coping mechanisms are really important and should not be overlooked (as it tends to be in Singapore). For those who find their mental health journey disappointing and/or traumatic, looking for someone to talk to, feeling lost or lonely or stuck, you might want to speak to a private therapist to a counsellor instead/as well? They can be pretty pricey, but for good reason, being professionals.