To think there will be many more disabled adults in 20 years?

In the 80's we all carried on working full time in spite of mental health issues. I was undiagnosed autistic and was hospitalised for anorexia in the 80's but went straight back to work and never had a day off. Also suffered selective mutism (not at work). High pressured job, one of very few women (dealing room). But no-one was there to support me so I dragged myself through it (and on to much better things thankfully) despite being near suicidal at many points. I could have ended up in a cardboard box under Hammersmith flyover.
I do think that indulging some of these mental health based claims for income support are unhelpful. What helps is understanding who you are and how to deal with yourself. That comes with long hard work, introspection and self discipline, and is often easier to achieve whilst you are actually doing a job.

I saw a horror film on streaming, Purge something or other - where the government legalised murder for a 24 hour period so in effect all those people who couldn't protect themselves were culled. It was justified as a way to keep taxes low so the population just accepted it.

It was quite horrific, because I could see something like that happening in the future.

I wasn't aware that this is what they did in Germany in the 30s, euthanise the infirm, disabled and unemployed because they were a drain on society. I think they did this before they even started on the Jews. That part of the Holocaust is often overlooked.

Global warming, migration, less resources, - all terrifying.

I've read about governments introducing UBI but it is never clear how or who funds that?

I think a huge issue is the closure of SEN schools. There simply are not enough. One of my older cousins went to a SEN school in the 80’s/90’s. Now in her mid 40’s, she has been able to work her entire adult life. She is not very severely intellectually disabled but she is impacted to a not insignificant degree.

Children have for some time now, been put through an education that overwhelms them right from the get go. A mainstream school doesn’t and will never have the time to spend teaching children with disabilities whether they’re physical, intellectual or both, the skills they need to feel confident in becoming part of the workforce. So they are not becoming part of it.

The rise of mental health issues in the anxiety space I think are separate and related to screens/social media.

I think if the nhs keeps getting worse and people keep having children at an older age then yes.

I do see what you are saying, and it has more weight than my opinion as you are a teacher seeing this first hand. Would you say it requires the delivery of the same curriculum but in different settings? The trouble I've seen is that specialist provision seems to lump together disabled children regardless of behavioural issues, and there's no way a quiet autistic child can learn when surrounded by the anxiety inducing stimulus of distressed children. But I also see parents homeschooling and their children are not being challenged enough either educationally or socially.

Unless the country does change and becomes a ‘can do’ ‘can work’ one we are in for a rough ride.
There is only so much money that can be given out. And only so much non work that a society can handle.

The YTS wasn’t a bad thing

I do think there is a lack of work ethic in some families and agree that my dps wouldn’t have tolerated school refusal or not working long term

also there are companies making a lot of money out of disability

I think this is a very interesting question. My thoughts:

Of course, there are people with mental health disorders. However, I do think that we have people claiming to have anxiety or mental health disorders, when they don't. It's a get out of jail free card, especially at work : "You can't make me do that, because I suffer with X"

Invisible illnesses - anyone can claim "I have it", and you can't disagree. My sister has a pal with ME. She doesn't work, doesn't do anything at home, like cooking or cleaning, literally nothing - her DH does it all. However, at the weekend she can cut up a dance floor until 3am.

Too much soft parenting - means a lack of resilience in people. At 16, I was working full time and paying board. If I had told my parents I didn't want to work, and my plan was to play video games all day, I would have been given a clip around the ear and a boot up the arse - no way would that fly. Same if I had refused school - would have been marched through the door.

People having children too late. We all know that under age 35 is optimum. Once you go over that, you have much more chance of having children who have certain disorders. Why is this never mentioned? And this goes for men too, as sperm deteriorates as the man gets older, yet we regularly see 50 year old men getting women pregnant.

Ultra processed foods - why are we feeding our children utter shite and then wondering why they aren't thriving? Same goes for people not eating well in pregnancy.

Violent video games - why are we letting little boys play video games, where they are shooting shit up and murdering people? Do we not see how this is going to fuel aggression and put violent ideas into little heads.

Social media - dreadful for young people, because everyone looks like they're doing better than you/having more fun/are thinner or prettier (filters).

Lack of jail terms for offenders. If you do the crime, do the time. No early release. For really bad crimes, lethal injection.

That was a bit of a ramble and I've gone hugely off topic!

I think they should buy up buildings in each major town/city to renovate into small, 1 bedroom flats. I think a lot of these kids as adults will simply spend their lives on computer games and tablets and just need adequate lodgings and basic needs met.

But it doesn't though. Imagine a dyslexic child without support. Sitting in lesson after lesson they can't access because they struggle with reading and writing. They are not being given the same opportunity.

I understand why education is so inflexible. I'm a teacher. There is no way one poor teacher can cater to the individual when they teach 300 children on rotation every 2 weeks. BUT it doesn't alter the fact that education is closed to many, many children.

This did exist at one point, Remploy for example (which still does exist) had contracts with major food retailers and it worked well. I managed really diverse teams including people with physical an/or intellectual disabilities. I don’t think those people, if they were teens/young adults now would have the same chance of getting those jobs because said line of work has wholesale cut back on the workforce, so actually each person now employed is doing the work of three people 15 years ago.

Yes this is one aspect people forget- people are having babies much older on average which raises risks, also a much much higher number of babies are thankfully surviving prematurity, pregnancy complications and other complexities that wouldn’t have made it in previous generations.

Unless the country does change and becomes a ‘can do’ ‘can work’ one we are in for a rough ride.
There is only so much money that can be given out. And only so much non work that a society can handle.

But it doesn't though. Imagine a dyslexic child without support. Sitting in lesson after lesson they can't access because they struggle with reading and writing. They are not being given the same opportunity.

I understand why education is so inflexible. I'm a teacher. There is no way one poor teacher can cater to the individual when they teach 300 children on rotation every 2 weeks. BUT it doesn't alter the fact that education is closed to many, many children.

I think this is a very interesting question. My thoughts:

Of course, there are people with mental health disorders. However, I do think that we have people claiming to have anxiety or mental health disorders, when they don't. It's a get out of jail free card, especially at work : "You can't make me do that, because I suffer with X"

Invisible illnesses - anyone can claim "I have it", and you can't disagree. My sister has a pal with ME. She doesn't work, doesn't do anything at home, like cooking or cleaning, literally nothing - her DH does it all. However, at the weekend she can cut up a dance floor until 3am.

Too much soft parenting - means a lack of resilience in people. At 16, I was working full time and paying board. If I had told my parents I didn't want to work, and my plan was to play video games all day, I would have been given a clip around the ear and a boot up the arse - no way would that fly. Same if I had refused school - would have been marched through the door.

People having children too late. We all know that under age 35 is optimum. Once you go over that, you have much more chance of having children who have certain disorders. Why is this never mentioned? And this goes for men too, as sperm deteriorates as the man gets older, yet we regularly see 50 year old men getting women pregnant.

Ultra processed foods - why are we feeding our children utter shite and then wondering why they aren't thriving? Same goes for people not eating well in pregnancy.

Violent video games - why are we letting little boys play video games, where they are shooting shit up and murdering people? Do we not see how this is going to fuel aggression and put violent ideas into little heads.

Social media - dreadful for young people, because everyone looks like they're doing better than you/having more fun/are thinner or prettier (filters).

Lack of jail terms for offenders. If you do the crime, do the time. No early release. For really bad crimes, lethal injection.

That was a bit of a ramble and I've gone hugely off topic!