Episode Details

CONTENT WARNING: This episode discusses rape, sexual assault, suicidal thoughts, mental health crisis and involuntary psychiatric treatment.

Melanie Wrest went to hospital after being raped.

She told police she was suicidal. She was detained under South Australia’s mental health laws and, as she remembers it, spent around 14 hours in a busy emergency department waiting to be assessed, while the sexual assault care she had gone there seeking was delayed.

In this episode of The C-Word, Mel talks about surviving two rapes, reporting to police, living with a mental health diagnosis, and what happened when her need for psychiatric care and her need for sexual assault care collided.

This is Mel’s account of what happened to her, in her own words.

Support & resources mentioned in this episode

Yarrow Place Rape and Sexual Assault Service

Yarrow Place provides support for people who have experienced rape or sexual assault in South Australia, including crisis support and forensic medical care following a recent sexual assault. The service is available 24 hours a day. (sahealth.sa.gov.au)

Phone:
Metropolitan Adelaide: (08) 8226 8787
SA Country: 1800 817 421

Yarrow Place information via SA Health

If you are in immediate danger or require urgent emergency assistance, call 000.

Book mentioned by Mel

How Many More Women?
by Jennifer Robinson and Keina Yoshida

Mel mentions finding this book in an op shop after returning to Victoria. It examines how legal systems and institutions respond to women who speak publicly about violence, abuse and harassment.

How Many More Women? – Allen & Unwin

🎙️👀 What worked? What dragged? What made you mutter “Jesus Christ, Catharine”? Tell me.

Content Note ~
This podcast gets into bodies, panic attacks, trauma, sexism, mental health, and the occasional emotional sinkhole. Please look after yourself only listen when you feel safe to engage with potentially triggering material. 
Also, I swear.

Support ~ 
These aren’t here as a formality. I’ve used some of these myself.

Lifeline 13 11 14 (24/7)
Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 (ages 5–25)
1800RESPECT 1800 737 732
Emergency 000

Outside Australia, local crisis services are available. ~

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Credits
Recorded on the lands of the Ramindjeri and Ngarrindjeri peoples.
Sovereignty never ceded.

Recorded & edited at Ridley Farm Studio by Luke Ridley
https://ridleyfarmstudio.com...