To be shocked that over half a million people under the age of 35 are out of work due to long-term sickness

A lot of people of all ages need medical help but the guardian and independent only focus on the young because of the toxic ageism of the times..also social media and the desire to sometimes weaponise mental health also adds to.this.Plus the cult of living your best life etc.Physical issues are neglected through all age groups.

Well sure "disability access" can be a thing

One office I worked in had a lift out of service for four months and still scheduled meetings on the third floor

Another one is in a huge building with meeting rooms spread across it, some can be accessed by lifts others can't and if you don't walk quickly enough when one meeting ends at half past and your next meeting at the other end of the building starts at the same time then comments are made

Then there was the building where there were normal external doors and a revolving one. We had a colleague with a guide dog be told that everyone could now only enter the building by the revolving door even though the dog struggled to guide my colleague through it

Then there was a colleague who was yelled at by the receptionist for parking in the one disabled bay because the CEO liked it to be kept free for him, the CEO wasn't disabled, my colleague who was yelled at had a blue badge.

I've seen departments be restructured and coincidentally a far higher number of disabled people be made redundant than able bodied people

I've seen WFH hours be removed from people who can only work with them in place, flexible working arrangements and part time hours turned down "because otherwise everyone will ask for them" etc

So sure many could contribute some useful hours weekly but the reality is if you can't do full time hours, or you have a physical impairment that makes it harder for you to access the qprk space, or you have a higher amount of sick leave then no matter how useful your contribution is employers aren't necessarily all that interested in employing you.

I have a team where their entire job can be done sitting down (coders) and we tend to work remotely. Despite me speaking to HR on multiple occasions about our job advert wording they still only talk about how they want to encourage women into the workspace. they refuse to say that the job can be done by people with a range of disabilities, even though it can, because realistically they don't want to actively recruit people with disabilities.

This is a subject that I have a lot of interest in. Mostly work related. The government are throwing more money at 'mental health' treatment than ever before but it is not 'working' as numbers keep increasing. I've discussed this personally with a range of practitioners, including charities for the young and wider mental health support organisations. They suggest there is a decrease in resilience particularly amoung the young, a medicalisation of mental health and social pressures.

I would be interested to hear your thoughts goldcrestonabranch

I was thinking similar - given the number of people that are off sick with stress, could it have anything to do with management practices (embraced by/forced on the public sector as well as the private) that have made what used to be relatively low pressure jobs enormously stressful? Teaching and childcare and how they are treated by OFSTED would be one example. Another is the NHS where it’s not just management practices it’s trying to deliver a service with chronic underfunding and staff shortages which causes people to go off sick or leave because they can’t cope and then it spirals.

Don’t want to get sucked into the debate but just to say you can receive DLA/PIP and work.

ESA is the benefit for not working because of illness/disability.

Access to work is available for support in the work place but there’s been so many problems with this that a lot of people have lost jobs.

We're a sick society so it's no surprise that a large number of people are deemed incapable of working. Life's shit. If we want to make it better for ourselves we need to make it worse for other people - in the case of making the country better, we need to make it worse for those abroad. There's only so much happiness and prosperity to go around and a long time ago we seem to have decided to give up our own to improve those of others. Long term sickness and poor mental health are the inevitable consquence.

The upswing will be largely due to autism. There is increasing awareness of the condition and many more young people are seeking and receiving diagnosis.

Like anything else a diagnosis may feel helpful but unfortunately they do tend to become self fulfilling. Once a person has a label there is a tendency to be restricted or confined by it.

Please educate me someone..

These "pisstakers" that i know. Trust me i know loads. I'm not lying many of them are my mates, mutual acquaintances etc.

Is it conceivable that years ago it was easier, and they got on the wagon then and since then the evil tories got in power and made it impossible but that doesn't matter once you're in, you're in.

Don't you have to go for a yearly review or something like that?

I'm just outside of that age group but I have Long Covid, can't get any help for it, and it has absolutely ruined my health. 😕

GP gave me a link to a long covid Web page and offered me antidepressants.

I'm one of them. I have a brain injury among other physical health conditions. Is that OK with you or do you want me down the coal mines?

It was considerably easier to access before the Tories got hold of it. There’s a difference between being difficult to access and effectively being non existent unless you are actively suicidal. And if you do manage to get it you’re most likely to get some IAPT/CBT therapists for a short period rather than access to CPNs, psychologists, CMHT.

I do think societal issues play a large part too, but don’t underestimate how difficult it is to access good, effective help these days.

Absolutely, I've been back in work nearly 9 years now, working for 3 companies, every year there have been multiple re structures and redundancies

I know staff members who have had a real impact on their mental health as a result of the constant uncertainty as to whether their job will still be there in a few months, whether it will be the same job, whether they will have to reapply for it etc

And quite frankly people who get made redundant in their late 50s onwards often struggle to find the same work, or any work again even though they realistically need to be working for quite a lot longer, but businesses are no longer interested in hiring them

So it's all very well the government raising the pension age and creating a situation to force disabled people into work, but with no incentives to do so what business is going to take on Bob who is 61 over 30 year old, or John who needs money spending on him for reasonable adjustments over an able bodied person?

And even if the businesses do take them on, if they are made redundant will another company?

I get that businesses aren't charities and they need to do what they need to do to make their profits and keep their shareholders happy, but it creates an environment which is frankly hostile to a proportion of its potential workforce

ToBeOrNotToBee - Well said, exactly what has happened to my daughter, it’s shameful. Endometriosis is such a debilitating condition, I should know, I’ve had it myself.

Exactly @Neitheronethingnortheother

The disabled community included those of us who are chronically ill.

It's a remarkably high number considering the steps made to design buildings for disability access, huge workplace initiatives for mental health access and awareness, flexible work arrangements and working from home employment options.
I'm sure there are many who could contribute some useful hours weekly with many of these workplaces initiatives in place.

The government and NHS definitions of long term illness includes disabilities and any chronic conditions - its basically anything which doesn't have a cure. Most people with chronic conditions work using management protocols eg insulin for type 1 diabetes, statins or diet regimes for hypertension.

I'd be interested in seeing the original raw data on this because its not clear from the article if the original data says half a million "with' chronic conditions or half a million "because of" chronic conditions. Its also odd because ONS reports on employment typically classify "young" as 16-24, not 16-35 and half a million under 35 out of work due to chronic conditions does not match stats on unemployment.

It would be really useful if the Guardian linked to the source data rather than regurgitating headlines from a lobby group which itself doesn't make clear all the raw data in use - just its own analysis and abstractions.

It would be unsurprisingi if the ever lengthening waits for investigations and treatment of health problems delays return to work or full time work for some people but fudging numbers helps no-one other than lobby groups.
eg The questions about mental health - the causes, the levels of diagnosis, the waits for investigations all require different responses but I can find nothing in the report being reported to differentiate these and suggest strategies, just "we are all doomed".

Disability is actually social. The social model of disabilty. Yes we have impairments but we don't need to be disabled by these impairments.

@thatsnotmywean I am VERY disabled by the medical reality of my type 1 diabetes, actually. It isn't just social. There sure is a social element that is utter bullshit to deal with but it is so high handed to breezily dismiss the gravity of how certain disabilities destroy your body.

I have almost perfect diabetic numbers that doctors praise to the hilt.

It has still caused numerous issues with so many systems in my body. I am so tired. It is relentless. I have had it since childhood and there is no rest, no break from the daily struggle to stay alive both in the present moment and do damage limitation for the future.

The social model of disability only works if we hold space for the bodily and mental pain and exhaustion experienced by plenty of disabled people that will never go away even if we lived in a utopia for disability.

Lucky you if you don't understand this.

I think workplaces themselves don't help. Constant restructuring/redundancies, uncertain WFH climate and no real support for flexible working. No wonder people struggle to stay in work.

I suspect that these numbers out of work will come down over time - anecdotally I know a lot of people who have taken breaks in their degree etc due to Long Covid so hopefully as people recover (and I know it will be a slow recovery) eventually they will be able to get back to normal life.

I agree, @Octavia64 , the pandemic derailed many teenagers and young adults, but going by the ppl I know IRL, they’re gradually getting back on track.

In terms of MH conditions, which have massively increased according to this article, I personally think that the milder and treatable forms of anxiety and depression (perhaps caused by the pandemic?) can seem overwhelming when you’re younger. You don’t know how you’ll ever recover. But many, many people suffer from lifelong anxiety and depression, and find that they can manage their conditions and have productive lives once they’ve found the right medication, for example.

That’s bad. I feel like I’ve been quite lucky then( not having the pain itself) that was paralysing at its worst, but I did get basic physio, nerve blockers and in the end, injections into to spinal area ( I’m allergic to ibuprofen)
I did pay for a consultation with a physio who gave me some very good advice/ exercises.

I’ve had to pay privately for my daughter in gynae and neurology in the end. At 28 she has had a hysterectomy due to neglect by the NHS in gaslighting her for 10 years. She firstly had several operations to remove debilitating endometriosis, then a hysterectomy to stop the constant periods and pain, she’d simply had enough.

Neurology wouldn’t see her as her symptoms didn’t fit their criteria. Yet when willing to pay we got the treatment we initially asked for. An MRI later she has a brain tumour, and upon actually seeing a neuro surgeon 9 months (the delay was due to lack of surgeons) after the MRI, he diagnosed another neurological illness and not fibromyalgia as advised by a G.P several years earlier.

She is now under a psychiatrist, privately again. She has complex PTSD due to the medical trauma she’s experienced.

All in all pretty fucking useless, her life for the past 10 years has been a nightmare of constant pain and wondering what the hell is happening to her body. She’s currently not able to work, waiting for a neurology appointment, god knows when it will be to deal with the latest diagnosis, unfortunately it’s only available within the NHS as a specialised service.

She has admitted to us that if we hadn’t been able to pay for a lot of her treatments she would no longer be here. After witnessing what she has been through I would never have believed that the NHS was in such a mess of disorganised chaos. Communication is the biggest failure, I’m exhausted constantly chasing people all the time.

All I can say is that if anyone has a child with mental health issues PschiatryUK has been amazing. The psychiatrist my daughter saw online has been fantastic, she is getting on with her medication and is waiting for trauma based counselling. It’s going to be a long road and not sure when she’ll be fit for work 🤷‍♀️

Such plans pay out less than your usual income. That has always been the case and they are not cheap.

the huge up swing on the graph since 2020 for "Hearing, seeing, allergies, epilepsy, autism"

Why would the pandemic result in this I wonder

I'm guessing it's the need for both parents to work full time meaning long hours in wraparound care when young, vaccinations and general food health, cost of living meaning there is no incentive to work hard as you wont get a home and progress anyway. Along with illnesses such as covid giving long term physical issues and the lack of a responsive health system.

Vaccinations, you say?

Mental health care has never been well funded or supported by the NHS so this explosion in difficulties is not directly linked to the level of funding and support available. The rise in cases has got to be due to societal issues such as poor prospects for young people and falling living standards, ie it’s a social issue not a medical issue.

We therefore need social solutions. Increasing the availability of therapy sessions is not going to solve this.