It took Ms Parise years to come to terms with her eldest son’s descent into meth addiction and how it impacted every facet of his life. Daniel as a child. Credit:Agnieszka Parise Now, she and her son want to add to the growing movement in Western Australia pushing the McGowan government to consider involuntary rehabilitation for drug users. Ms Parise and Daniel have revealed their story with the aim of creating awareness about the reality of meth addiction, and the long road to recovery. Ms Parise said Daniel first began experimenting with drugs when he was 16-years-old, but said he hid it well from his parents.

On the outside, Daniel was an outgoing and charismatic boy who had a talent for playing the drums. When she found out he had been using drugs while at supposed study sessions with friends, Ms Parise and her partner sat him down to warn him about the slippery slope he was on. After he finished school Daniel got a job as a Telstra sales and billing consultant and moved out with friends. It was around this time he tried meth, and Ms Parise said she remembered the authorities frequently attended his rental when fights between himself and his partner would escalate. Ms Parise said despite being able to support himself, it was clear from the outside Daniel was struggling.

“He wouldn't shower, he just looked terrible," she said. Loading "His eyes looked all red, like he hadn't slept for days. There were little warning signs, but ... I still wasn't sure what was going on. I didn't really know much about meth at that stage.” With Daniel's previous excellent record as an employee to consider, his employer tried to support him as best they could. He was given access to a company psychologist, but was eventually made redundant after nine years with the business. "He started becoming isolated, having a lot of arguments and issues with friends or co-workers ... again, not functioning. He wasn't able to get up in the morning and he couldn't sleep through the night,” Ms Parise said.

Eventually he was arrested. “At 2am, he had a huge axe and he was destroying all of his furniture, and his car and slashing his tyres, and digging under the rental house thinking there's treasure there. He was totally psychotic," his mother said. Daniel said it was at this point he was put into Graylands, and diagnosed with schizophrenia. We've been to the hospitals, we've been in and out and no one cares. You're just a number Daniel's mother Agnieszka Parise He was given anti-psychotic medication in 2016, but under WA legislation, the facility was only able to keep him as an involuntary patient for a month before he was released again.

Ms Parise said when he moved back in with her and her three other children, she had hope. But he stopped taking his medication after three months, and slipped back into meth use within four. “He was sleeping with a knife under his pillow in my house, he threatened his brother that he was going to kill him and sleep in his bed covered in his blood,” Ms Parise said. “He’d be up all night thinking someone’s out to get him, very paranoid, walking around with weapons thinking these people were coming to get him, the house is bugged, he can see recording devices, there’s hidden cameras... that was his reality. “It was very, very scary to live with him." While there was some support from local mental health facilities, Ms Parise said they were often powerless as Daniel’s drug use and mental health got worse, and he was eventually readmitted to Graylands.

Since then, he bounced between friend’s houses, hotel rooms and rehab centres. Earlier this year he discharged himself just one week after going into a facility. He often called Ms Parise to threaten suicide, and most recently called her from a hotel room saying he had a knife and he was going to dig the ‘Nanobots’ out of his brain. The mother and son are teaming up to highlight how addiction can affect people and their families. Credit:Agnieszka Parise She said when she had admitted him to hospital or he has been picked up by police and taken to a mental health facility, he was often discharged the next day after coming off drugs. Daniel said he found it extremely difficult to work within the WA mental health system.

"I tried going to [a Perth hospital] maybe two times, three times in the last three months and they basically said that they wouldn't accept me," he said. Loading "They said they wouldn't accept me when I had a genuine mental illness which is schizophrenia, which is a disability. "The third time I went there this year, they gave me a bed, let me sleep there for a night but then they let me go. They wouldn't put me into the mental health unit, which is where I wanted to go." Earlier this year, the state government announced it would commit to a new $22 million mental health unit for Fremantle Hospital, and a new facility at St John of God in Midland.

Graylands Hospital will be decommissioned. The announcements came after the Australian Medical Association raised concerns over the number of mental health patients facing long waits at Perth emergency departments, and the government’s Sustainable Health Care Review echoed these concerns. But Ms Parise said patients who were drug affected but with clear mental health issues were often treated by WA hospitals as a drug issue alone, and experienced little follow-up care. "We've been to the hospitals, we've been in and out and no one cares. You're just a number. They listen to you and understand, but that's the law,” she said. “There's nothing they can do. If the patient presents themselves like they're still able to talk okay and somehow take care of themselves then that means they're fine.”

Her son agrees. Loading "Involuntary rehab ... [I think it] could help," Daniel said. "That way it actually forces you to stay there for the long run. In the long term you're going to come out a lot stronger, and you will benefit from staying in the program in the full course. That's how I see it ... involuntary rehab is probably the best solution for this type of behaviour, and for people that have mental illnesses and are addicted to drugs." Ms Parise said there needed to be greater oversight from next-of-kin relatives when it comes to the discharging of mentally ill or drug-affected patients.