DWP Work Coaches to go into MH wards

[Rinoachicken]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98y09n8201o

so when you are at you absolute lowest and most unwell (which they are if they are an inpatient as bed are so scare), possibly lacking capacity, lacking cognisance function to understand and retain information, suicidal, psychotic - some tick box Jo, who’s only knowledge of mental health was a half day online course a couple of weeks ago, is going to come along and chat about your CV?!

If you are wanting to support people who are mentally unwell back into work, those acutely unwell in a hospital setting wouldn’t be my first priority - I’d be trying to increase the support AFTER discharge once stable, to those in the community and at primary care level first surely??!!

The DWP should have NO PLACE on a mental health ward imho - where the ONLY considerations and objectives should be stabilising people’s mental health.

I think for people like your brother work can be almost impossible
With a combination of severe and enduring mental illness, and heavy medication, the DWP wouldn't be targeting him though ,( hopefully)
There is a wide spectrum of mental health conditions and some people can remain stable for years

Oh stop. Of course it is not appropriate for floridly ill people to be hassled about getting jobs. But there are people at many stages in hospitals, and for some of them, this could be very helpful. Not all inpatients are sectioned.

I work in an NHS mental health inpatient hospital. You have to be pretty ill to be admitted with such limited places available. I don’t think any of these patients are fit for work. Whoever thought this was a good idea has obviously never experienced what it’s like in a mental health hospital.

If you have mental health issues. It could be because of a lot of trauma as a child you could have a huge lack of confidence So lots of therapy might be needed Someone from the job centre is unlikely to have training in that Sometimes the worse the trauma a person experiences the less they are believed Having spent time in a refuge and then been asked by a nurse was it just mental abuse I think because I may have looked an unlikely victim I can say there is a need to see the person and their difficulties

The majority of patients on mental health units are detained, and are very ill. Maybe on rehab wards, but Liz Kendall did not specify them. And no, I won't stop thanks, I'm entitled to have an opinion, despite it being different to yours.

I had a hard upbringing and physical and mental abuse as a child and in marriage this made me very vulnerable to not getting things right in a job and an easy victim of bullying in work places

what a nonsense. Do you know the state of the MH provision. Only the most unwell patients will be inpatient. No.work coach should be allowed in there. Ever.

I didn't find work helped on the whole it was hard working and I have. worked medication and therapy have finally helped work was unsupported There should be supportive working environments like years ago

So I work on a mental health ward and we have had an employment support officer linked to the unit before. It should be voluntary for patients and something offered which it was but it definitely helped some people! It was 3rd sector though, don’t want the DWP gaining access to mental health wards!

I have worked on acute and long term inpatient mental health wards

for some patients this is clearly totally inappropriate- those too unwell to engage for example

for some patients it could be really positive if done well. Not everyone with a a severe mental illness is incapable of work and I think it’s really stigmatising to say that people who are mental health inpatients are not capable of work. Giving appropriate support to those who what to discuss the future post discharge would be so valuable, patients do worry about life post discharge and all we seemed to offer was benefits advice (this was good advice and third sector provided) but this is almost saying to patients we don’t think there is a change you can become employed in the future, I often felt we were writing people off.

Helping people work out their skills and what employment and career might suit them, helping people access courses if they have literacy or numeracy gaps, helping people though applications, helping people explain themselves the gap in their employment history and providing links to proper employment opportunities with supportive employers and then CONTINUING that support post discharge with a clear plan for follow up and ongoing support would be very very helpful to some - in particular long term inpatients, forensic patients, addictions and rehab patients and maybe non psychotic frequent attendees.

if done well I could see that it could give patients hope that they can rejoin the outside world in a successful way and achieve their goals in life rather than the revolving door of benefits, poor housing and admissions we sometimes seem to provide for patients.

TLDR

patients ask things like “how will I support myself when I’m discharged - I’ve lost my job/partner/house”

currently we say “don’t worry the benefits worker from X charity will help you” and they get some benefits and a hostel room and that’s it

in a better world we could say “we will help you get some before sorted for when your first discharged but more long term what do you see yourself doing? What do you want to do with your life? How can we support you to have that employment” and then provide that support

I still don't think a hospital setting is the right place to talk about work. People are not discharged when they are better - nowadays they are discharged when they are the least unwell on the ward and their bed is needed. When I have been in hospital, I could barely think about the next hour, let alone what I wanted to do with my life. And when discharged, it was a day at a time then. The support I had from the CMHT was about keeping me out of hospital, not getting into work.
My local MIND did have a job club thing, but Covid fucked all the groups up. All we have now are craft, walking, and allotment groups.

Saying that, I think OP has titled this thread wrong. The article says nothing about DWP work coaches going onto wards, just some sort of advisor. No one will be going onto wards and sanctioning people or forcing them to update a CV or looking for work. I would hope this scheme would be voluntary, and that it is not pushed onto anyone.

The government are having to thrash the non working population out to work in order to raise more taxes. I wonder who they'll target next; the elderly? Terminally ill? Suicidal?

'Work Was Good For Me' inscribed on your tombstone no doubt.

This. In my area there are employment support workers employed by the local NHS mental health trust. And they're for people who WANT to go back to work. Very different to enforced DWP job coaches.

The irony of stopping sickness benefits and forcing people into work is that those same people will be in minimum wage jobs and getting more in UC top up than they did when they were classed as too sick to work.

Now, this does sound like a good idea.
I have been in hospital with people were bereft that they had lost their job as a result of being admitted. One guy was in bits as his own company was destroyed as a result of his MH issues.

I expected better from a Labour government.
I'll back up op on interaction's with DWP staff when dealing with putting forward information for someone that's disabled,the stupidity I've encountered has been unbelievable.One work coach suggested that there maybe a cure for osteoporosis.... really.

As am I, and as someone who has worked in MH for a long time, including over a decade on wards, I am going to keep pushing back at people making blanket statements about the unsuitability of this. And being detained at the beginning does not mean that you are as ill or on a legal hold at the end of your hospital stay, or that everyone on a ward is as ill as you are saying - there are different types of wards. Just focusing on one narrow type of ward and stage in the hospital stay is not realistic.

Yes my DH was a voluntary patient for 3 weeks after his section ended, and there were many like this. He was allowed to sign himself out to go for a coffee in town. Having someone to talk to about pathways to work would have been useful, and he was perfectly capable of talking about this rather than endless daytime TV and a bit of cooking. I would imagine the people accessing this are the people who have a treatment plan in place and who are getting ready to be discharged, not people who are psychotic. That would be dangerous for people going in.