To be terrified of being mentally ill under Tory Government

[NightTerrier]

I've been increasingly anxious about the future of people with disabilities under this government.

Mental illness can be one of those invisible disabilities, although not always as I am clearly batshit crazy when manic. I have Bipolar 1.

I probably have a serious depressive and manic episode once every 18 months to 2 years despite being medicated and then have to go through the recovery process, get stabilised again and rebuild my life and sort out the mess left behind. This and the time for rehabilitation basically fucks up a whole year in terms of occupation and employment.

My partner was made redundant and now works in a minimum wage job and I'm in recovery and it's been a long slog for me. I don't think many people understand the devastation that a serious full blown manic episode can cause.

My DLA is due to move to PIP in Sept and I'm terrified, as it helps top up my income so I can afford to work part time when well enough. Now I hear that people are being turned down for PIP even if they are well enough to work part time. DLA was meant to be an in work benefit.

Employers don't want someone who's unable to work for months at a time and could randomly become ill. I don't think it's even a matter of the government not being aware. I think it's more a case of them not caring, or even some kind of idealism involved and they think it's a moral failing and your own fault if you can't be a 'productive' member of society. The fact that some people might begrudge me getting a disability benefit makes me angry too. It really isn't a cushty option by any means. In fact, I think the way the government is handling things is making matters worse for a lot of mentally ill people and they are getting more ill as a result.

The local CMHT has been really supportive. Unfortunately, this only seems to be the case when people have bipolar 1 and schizophrenia. Getting good treatment is an indication that you are pretty much fucked, but I'm very grateful for it and they've really helped me after the last manic episode and my life is getting back on track again. The most worrying part is that I'm highly likely to find myself back in the same situation in a year or two and stress, sleep disruptions and other things could perhaps trigger mania or depression sooner that.

A lot of people are in a similar situation and it's just really grim, worrying and quite depressing.

Anyway, sorry for the long post, but AIBU to be terrified for the future of people who are debilitated by serious mental illnesses?

[Dawndonnaagain]

I'm sure they are, but as a person with a number of disabilities, I'll take the chance, thanks. I'm tired of being marginalised. I've spent years fighting for the rights of people with disabilities. We got so much done only to watch the last two governments erode everything.

[Katy07]

The next Labour government has said they will look at the way the assessment companies work and ensure that the assessments are fit for purpose
They're very good at talking. That's what politicians do. Somehow it seems to change when they actually get the chance to take action.

[Dawndonnaagain]

Mental health services were dire under labour. I was referred as a high risk patient by my gp and it took over 2 years to get an appointment. Under the tories I was seen the next day.
I suspect you are a rarity. In almost every other county in the UK, mental health funding has been cut drastically.

A Labour govt would be just as bad, don't kid yourself otherwise. And the same for any other party.
The next Labour government has said they will look at the way the assessment companies work and ensure that the assessments are fit for purpose. They are currently not so.

[NameChanger22]

Things were much better under Labour. All we've seen with the Tories is cuts, cuts and more cuts. Obviously this going to have a massive effect on lots of people's lives, particularly those that need the help most. The Tories do not give a shit. At least Labour tried, they didn't always succeed, but they did try.

[PlayOnWurtz]

Mental health services were dire under labour. I was referred as a high risk patient by my gp and it took over 2 years to get an appointment. Under the tories I was seen the next day.

[UnbornMortificado]

MsHoolies doesn't surprise me, I've been told in the past I'm too pretty to be mentally ill

[MsHooliesCardigan]

I agree that PFI is a disaster- it's the equivalent of going on a massive spending spree on your credit cards and spending the rest of your life struggling to just pay off the interest.

[Believeitornot]

PFI did increase and have you ever stopped to think why?

First they were introduced by the Tories. Second it was to reverse significant underfunding under the Tories.

Also you don't hear the Tories highlighting this as a cause of NHS funding issues. Which they could quite easily do and blame labour for.

However instead the Tories spin all sorts of lies about the NHS to keep up the narrative that it is the fault of the NHS. And the unspoken narrative that the private sector is better.

They're funded by private sector donors who want more money.

Anyway, I don't believe that the private sector is better than public sector. It's a false distinction. The public sector should provide services that the private sector won't, and which support a healthy economy to enable the private sector to do well.
Unfortunately we've got in to such a mess now that, with the help of successive governments, it's become one big fight. A fight between private vs public, those on benefits vs those working on low wages, the young vs the baby boomers.

All the while the rich keep getting richer. They keep causing all these fights to distract from what they're doing. They're getting bolder now - I mean seriously who is Farage to say he's speaking for the people? Trump? Is he a man of the street.

It is ludicrous.

[mollie123]

PFI under the labour government increased massively - google it!
and much of these initiatives are still draining billions from the current NHS and cannot be un-done as they are existing contracts

[MsHooliesCardigan]

I'm a mental health nurse. When ATOS started doing their assessments, I accompanied a patient to an assessment who had just come out of hospital after a 4 month admission. Bearing in mind the pressure on beds, that in itself indicates that she must have been pretty unwell. She initially went in informally, was then placed on a section 5 (2) which is an emergency 'holding' section, then a section 2 and then a section 3 and was transferred to a private hospital because she needed a Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) because her behaviour was so disturbed. Throughout her admission, she was assessed by six consultant psychiatrists who all concluded that she had Schizo-Affective Disorder. The ATOS doctor assessing her concluded, after meeting her for an hour, that 'with all due respect, this lady does not have a serious mental illness'. The evidence for this was that 'she made eye contact and did not display rocking movements' and 'was fashionably dressed and wearing make up'.
So their judgement gets to over-ride numerous doctors with years of training in psychiatry who have spent months assessing this patient. I had another patient declared fit for work 3 days before she was sectioned. I have a 100% success rate on the appeals I have done for my patients and, to be fair, some of the judges have had the grace to apologise for the crapness of the system and have looked quite embarrassed.
Some of the judgements literally seem to be saying that, if someone is not frothing at the mouth or waving an axe around, they cannot have a serious mental illness which shows a shocking state of ignorance. DLA and PIP are not good at assessing illnesses that fluctuate and Bi Polar is the ultimate example of a fluctuating illness. When people with Bi Polar are well, they are as well as anyone else but, when they are ill, they can inflict so much damage to themselves in a very short space of time. I have an ex boyfriend who worked in Saudi Arabia for 8 years and saved enough money to buy a house outright when he was 30. He then had a manic episode and drew out all the money he had saved for 8 years and wandered round London handing it away to people. The money he had spent 8 years earning was gone in 48 hours.
I agree with the OP that mental health care is becoming dangerously inadequate.

[SofiaAmes]

The Mental Health Parity laws that we have don't make people automatically behave, but they do give me the right to sue on my child's behalf and because we're such a litigious society, suing is how you change things here.
I suppose I'm lucky because my child is a child and it's him and not me that needs the help, so I am able to give it to him without struggling myself with mental illness. I also have put a strong emphasis on his finding a career that can accommodate his mental (and medical) illnesses. I think that's much easier to set as a precedent when you are starting the patterns at birth, rather than trying to remake yourself as an adult. My ds gets accommodations in school and his testing, but I have not signed him up for Disability assistance as I prefer that he tries to figure out how to have a career despite his adversities. Again, in a perverse way, I am so glad we had to start this journey when he was a child as it makes it so much easier to set paradigms and patterns.
Unborn I am having such great difficulty in taking Trump seriously that I am not worried at all about his impact on disability rights which is perhaps not a good thing. He is awful when it comes to pretty much everything, so I'm not hopeful. However, the status quo talked a good game, but wasn't actually much better, so maybe change will be good. In any case, the checks and balances do a pretty good job of keeping the president in check, so unless Congress gets it together (highly unlikely at the moment....they are making the Italian government look unified and organized), Trump won't get too much achieved which may or may not be a good thing.

[MissVictoria]

I'm worried now, how do you know when you're due to get switched from DLA to PIP? will i receive a letter? It was a massive struggle to get the DLA i was entitled to in the first place, first application rejected, second had loads of help from a lovely social worker but trying to get referred for any kind of mental health treatment where i live is a massive waiting list and they're not acomodating of those of us virtually housebound who can't go to them for appointments.

[MissVictoria]

I've had severe OCD since i was 15, depression since 14, had to drop out of high school due to how ill i became, and Between my ESA and DLA i receive less than £9,500 a year. I have only one living parent who gave up work 11 years ago when i was 16 to become my full time carer. My mum was diagnosed terminally ill out of the blue in April 2010, Died June 2010.
My dad gets only carers allowance and a very, very small pension of my mums, which is virtually nothing as she was only 48 when she died.

We earn less than minimum wage for one person between the two of us, and my additional living costs due to my illness are really high. We already live in a house with no central heating or hot water and only just manage to get by, nothing spare to fix anything. I haven't had a date for when my DLA will be changed over to PIP but if it is true they're taking it off people who cannot work, we're screwed.

[NightTerrier]

Thanks for the link Kitten... Interesting stuff!

CitrusSun Yes, I share your views and it really scares me and it's probably making my mental health worse. I daren't tell people that I recieve high rate care and low rate mobility for DLA because of the current prevailing attitudes towards people on benefits.

Sometimes things just seem really bleak. I know I shouldn't dwell on the current state of our country, but I just cant help it. What they are doing is pretty evil tbh. Although I'm ashamed to admit it, I do judge people for supporting the Conservatives and wonder why most 'normal' people think they will help the common folk? It's utterly baffling. They'll be pissed off if they need the NHS or are too ill to work.

[CitrusSun]

Truthfully anyone who is less than privileged stands no chance under a Tory government, it's about as close to ethnic cleansing as it can possibly be, London has become a micro state where only the wealthy can afford to live, or indeed are welcome to live; the answer to any problem is to throw money at it, if you can't buy your way out as a solution this government's policies are really not for you. It's a desperately hopeless situation when those who make decisions for the masses originate from the tiny percentage of over privileged, over entitled and ever ignorant; they have been protected from the grit and grime of real life as experienced by 99.9% of people who they are supposed to represent due to their wealth and upbringing, so far removed from grassroots. I can't think of another comparable country where the so called leaders are so out of touch with those they purport to lead. So God help any of us who need health care, mental or physical; any form of social security; a pension in retirement or just any hope of being regarded as a valuable human being because unless you have the only currency this regime recognises- extreme wealth - .you're pretty much fucked

[KittenDixon]

YANBU. And I think goes deeper than that tbh. The proportion of people with MH issues gets higher the more unequal/unfair society becomes.

As this graph shows.

[NightTerrier]

Still, that's great news. I'm glad he got the award.

[UnbornMortificado]

Still I don't have much experience with sn children's/young adults. I would imagine (or hope) with the conditions you listed it would be common place to be awarded.

[StillMedusa]

The change from DLA to PIP isn't ALL terrible.
MyDS2 has Autism, learning difficulties and OCD. He's 19 and was on indefinite DLA. I was dreading the switch but wrote masses on his PIP form, sent in all the evidence I had (not a lot as once he left school all help disappeared!) and asked them to use previous info from his DLA. He was awarded the maximum PIP (ongoing, which is 10 years) without a face to face interview.

I literally wrote essays, making it very clear how much support he needs in daily life.

But maybe we were lucky!

[NightTerrier]

That's really shit. I probably sound like a conspiracy theorist, but it all smacks of economic eugenics (I just made that term up). I don't think they care if some disabled people die because of all of this. It's more money for tax avoiders and MPs.

[UnbornMortificado]

My mam used to work for citizens advice. They turned down a client of hers with a brain tumour. Turned out to be terminal but it wasn't found out in time to claim under the special rules

Sadly it's not just mental disability's.

[NightTerrier]

Sofia, that sounds like a real faff and really stressful for you. I really hope that Trump doesn't make matters worse. Even though you say there are strict Mental Health Parity laws over there, it still sounds far from ideal.

UnbornMortificado, aye. I think it is hard to tick boxes under mental health. It's a matter of people being informed and getting accurate information about it though. It probably won't happen, as the agenda seems to be to get as many people as possible off of disability benefits.

[UnbornMortificado]

Sofia are you worried any of that may change under Trump?

I won't pretend to understand politics (especially American) too well, but as far as I've read he doesn't seem to have the best reputation in regards to disability rights.

[UnbornMortificado]

It's hard to tick the boxes for MH unfortunately. I think it's hard to understand how debilitating it can be if you haven't suffered.

[SofiaAmes]

Here in California, we have oversight bodies that one can make complaints to when these types of things happen. I make about a dozen official complaints a year. It doesn't always result in immediate change, but it I've found that they must have me flagged up somewhere as the crazy lady who makes lots of complaints. And since each complaint results in a LOT of extra paperwork for everyone involved, I think they have decided to give me what I am asking for most of the time these days because it's easier than doing all the paperwork. Stupid stuff like one insurance company suggested that it was perfectly reasonable to take my ds to hospital ordered (condition of release from the psych ward) intensive outpatient program, 3 days a week, 3 hours a day for 6-9 months at a location that was a 2 hour drive from my home. And somehow I was supposed to manage this in out of school hours (ie after 4:20pm) when the place closed at 5pm. I got them to pay full price for a local place. And then there was a suggestion that my medically fragile child with severe mental illness could get his mental health needs (therapy and medication) met by his GP on the telephone! Or the lady who wanted to know why my ds needed to see an adolescent psychiatrist and why he couldn't see a normal one (uh...maybe because he's an adolescent and a "normal" psychiatrist won't see him because it's a very specialized field). I kept telling them...you wouldn't ask a child with a heart condition to get treated solely by his GP and tell him to wait until he has a heart attack before you will let him see a specialist. We have very strict Mental Health Parity laws here that require people and institutions to treat mental health just like any other medical condition.