NEIL Turton-Lane wishes there was a support group for people with sensory hallucinations when he was growing up.
It might have made his teenage years easier and helped speed up his recovery. Instead, Mr Turton-Lane was left to find his own way to deal with the voices that he heard.
Mr Turton-Lane, who is a mental health team leader for the Western Region Health Centre, is just one of the many thousands of people who hear voices that other people don’t.
The sensory hallucinations have had a major impact on his life.
Now, he hopes to make life easier for other people experiencing sensory hallucinations through a support group he has helped start in Werribee.
The group is part of an international network of groups that have gained the support of mental health workers. The groups were started by mental health trainer Ron Coleman, who wanted to find a way to help people normalise their hallucinations.
The Werribee group, which held its first meeting last week, is the first in the western suburbs. Mr Turton-Lane believes it will fill a gap between the help people receive from mental health services and their own coping mechanisms, informing them about ways other people manage the voices.
“It might not always be possible to get rid of the voices but you can learn to live with them and show them they are not running the show,” he said.
“The group is about finding ways to normalise and validate the experiences people are having.”
Mr Turton-Lane said people who heard voices were often isolated from the community and afraid to venture outside their house because the voices had told them something bad would happen. “You isolate yourself to the point where you don’t go out your front door. We want to get people back into the community because with the right encouragement, support and information it doesn’t have to be that way. We encourage people to re-enter society and find their worth and value.”
The group meets at the Kelly Park Community Centre at 1 Synnot Street every Wednesday from 1.30-3pm. Details: 93628181.
