… I should welcome a new government initiative to combine mental health treatment with job support. According to government estimates, about 260,000 people claiming employment and support allowance (ESA) have mental health problems.
As is typical of the Department for Work and Pensions, however, its latest scheme is ill thought-out. For while current trials are voluntary, the aim is to make treatment mandatory – refuse and you’ll lose your benefits.Well….yes. Why shouldn’t it be so?
Benefits are for people who can't work, not for people determined to do nothing to remove themselves from the category of 'unable to work'...
And that’s the problem. I’ve made some bad choices in life, but they were mine to make. It should also be my choice – as it should be anyone’s – who I open up to about my experiences and when I consider myself ready to do so.
Reliving a rape, for example, is a traumatic process that can unsettle the fine mental balance a person has worked hard to achieve. It can’t be rushed, and should not be subject to the threat of losing what little support and stability one has available.So it’s your choice to live off the state until it suits you, but I presumably am expected to have no choice but to pay to support you?
Under threat of the Inland Revenue taking me to court?
Right now, a person cannot be forced to undergo treatment unless they are considered a risk to their own health and safety or that of others.About time we changed that then.
Time we regarded work as therapy: less time to sit at home and think how crushed by life the poor tax eater is.
ReplyDeleteNever been there, have you Julia?
ReplyDeleteHow many times have you been an inch from taking your own life?
Get back to me when you know what you're talking about.
Bunny
ReplyDeleteI like 'I've made bad choices' yes but I am supposed to pay tax to pay for your choices you muppet! Rot in the cess pit of your own making and I really loved the comments about the boyfriend running off with his internet girlfriend and selling your comic book collection. Made my day.
Bunny
ReplyDeleteit is a she by the way
" Right now, a person cannot be forced to undergo treatment
ReplyDeleteAbout time we changed that then. "
Bit of a slippery slope that one...
Who decides what is to be treated and whom? It's not that long ago that homosexuals were being treated with electroshocks and there have been suggestions that a similar 'treatment' may help paedophiles. Also I seem to recall that, within Granny's living memory, 'depressive' women being 'treated' by the removal of various body parts.
Smokers and Gutbuckets obviously need treatment, as do those MURDERING psychopaths who enjoy hunting.
A good point, thin end of the wedge, and all that.
DeleteMy old Ma is paranoid schizophrenic and a Jehovah's witness who had electric shock treatment in the 50's. Can't remember whether it was for being a PS or a JW- neither can she.
ReplyDeleteMental Health resources are poor. People with severe mental health 'issues' are badly treated and have been since time immemorial and Care in the Community clearly doesn't work for a great many. We have seen this with regard to schizophrenia / bi polar and the tragic consequences. As someone who has some experience of dealing with Sec136 on the front line, emergency resources, centres and treatment is almost non-existant, For over 40 years police stations have been considered a place of safety but clearly police cells are not the place for a mentally unstable person, whether or not they are suffering from a 'Personality disorder' - the public can't tell the difference. Over the years I wondered at times whether mental health units were the right place for such people, understaffed, under resourced and overwhelmed with Mental health social workers in short supply and politically motivated NOT to help the 24 hour resource that tries to help - The Police.
ReplyDeleteThat said, when I read such articles I can't help but get the impression that the author has become so professional at being a patient that is has become their full time occupation to the exclusion of trying to re-adjust, work and integrate even if the resources and back up were there.
"Time we regarded work as therapy: less time to sit at home and think how crushed by life the poor tax eater is."
ReplyDeleteIt really IS good for you!
"How many times have you been an inch from taking your own life?"
Never. What's your point?
"...and I really loved the comments about the boyfriend running off with his internet girlfriend and selling your comic book collection. Made my day."
It does paint a somewhat unflattering picture, doesn't it?
"Bit of a slippery slope that one..."
ReplyDeleteIndeed.
But allowing people to choose not to work to resolve the issues that allow them to live off other is one, too...
"...when I read such articles I can't help but get the impression that the author has become so professional at being a patient that is has become their full time occupation..."
THIS!