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

[Walkyrie]

I’m disabled myself, just to put that out there.

It just seems like the number of people with a disability, usually a psychiatric one, is going through the roof.

40% of disability benefit claimants are claiming for mental health related reasons. The number of anxious children and teens on here, and that I know in my own life and family, is really really high. So many schools refusers and kids in need of extra support, special school placements and so on. It seems there are a lot of unemployed young adults living at home who simply don’t have the mental acuity to get a job, live independently, have a life of their own.

3 children in my family are currently school refusing, one we only found out about today but it was not a surprise as she’s always been very anxious and has selective mutism.

My AIBU is, should we be doing something to prepare for what may be a very high number of adults not working in years to come? How will we sustain them all?

I think there’s a bit of a social skills crisis

Society has to compete in the world for global contracts. If we do not have people able to work we will not get them.
It is as simple as that. They will go to the countries that do have people who can.

Agree with some of what you say but some invisible illnesses are not so invisible you can see them in blood inflammation CRP levels . I have an autoimmune condition for instance. I suspect a lot of us who have suffered with anxiety and depression throughout their life have had high inflammation for a long time . Maybe in future the types of depression that can be helped will be better treated and there will be no one able to fake it so to speak.

It deoends on how it impacts a person
Most people will feel anxious at times and thats normal and isnt a disabillity
Some people will take medication for anxiety and be able to live a fairly productive life
But if somones anxiety is so bad they can,t leave home and need help with self care etc thsn yes it can be disabling

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.

But do you think someone like that should give up her friendships and possibly the only connection she has with the outside world if she's unable to work in order to do a washing and make the dinner once a week? That is often the cost with ME. You can do one thing or maybe two things a week but doing those chosen things removes your ability to do the other things. Of course people will prioritise hanging on to friends if they've been locked out of other areas of life like work and having kids and if there's someone willing and able to do the things that make that possible for them. To be honest, all but one of my very genuinely disabled friends (from conditions like stroke, ME and schizophrenia) manage the pub from time to time but can't do things like house work consistently if at all.

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.

I.agree with you but how would you change the system?

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

So much pushes against this.

Re life being more stressful. Obviously comparing it to hundred fifty+ years ago wouldn't work, but relatively recent changes? In a way yes.
Noise pollution has risen considerably and it is actually a major stress cause. There are studies done on that. Urbanisation, more cars, planes, but also, let's be frank, people making more noise and givin less fucks.
I lost money on rental because I moved out early due to downstairs neigbour who knew fucking well how much can be hard between flats, but still run spin at 1am which shook my flat and bedroom, shouted at night etc. Wasn't much better during the day. Cortisol on high most of the time. We have people on mn arguing that playing music in garden all day is fine, that screaming children all day are fine (many nd, but still). Not particularly helpfulf when everything we have hums, vibrates, beeps. Droning, aka constant hums, vibrations etc, can actually cause anxiety feelings.
World also "lost" colour. Again, there are studies on that. Again, that contributes to stress.
Nature is moving away further from people. The green spacess accessed near many people are now new built sites. Nature is actually quite an stress reliever.

The world around us is now literally keeping us stressed without having any situational stresses like losses or ilnesses. It's just stressful by default.

I agree with this. Years ago women had children in their twenties - generally no problems. Not so many miscarriages. Today lot of women don't always have the luxury of that choice. They want to establish a career before having children or just can't afford it younger. And quite rightly, women should have that choice but it can cause more problems.

And about younger gen having too many not being able to survive workplace or have proper work ethic. While it's a collapsein waiting, for the first time in long time, 50+ might end up being preffered rather than cvs scrapped in 10 years.... I guess our gen doesn't have to worry about losing jobs and being replaces with younger ones....

There used to be a factory, run by the county council where I live. It provided employment for people with disabilities, including learning disabilities.

The council could no longer run it for reasons I can't now recall other than that it wasn't financial, and they couldn't find any organisation that could take it on, so it closed back in the noughties.

There used to be loads of such schemes back in the 70s and 80s, under the general umbrella of "sheltered workshops".

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.

Who is "they"?

I cannot believe that you think this is the answer. WTF!

You need to run for government - most sensible post I’ve read on here ever.

Im of an age where i remember YTS i didnt do one but knew many people did
As i recall it was hit and miss
Some kids were lucky and got a great company and got tsken on some were not
My 19 year old is leaving education in a few weeks hes desoerate to work im desperate for him to work ,but there are not load ,s of jobs
Hes just coming to the end of a 19 week work experience placement
The compsny have said they would take him on if they could but theres no jobs right now.

I think universities need a new business model. Tony Blair made people believe nearly every child would benefit and could and should go to University. I disagree. It has caused debt, ( not for vice chancellors mind who get paid masses), and stress for people who in the past would not have gone. But who would have been a lot happier doing something else.
Saturday jobs. Seem to have disappeared. And they were a good stepping stone into the world of work. They need to come back. Yes, they may need to change the tax credit system to do it. The massive wage subsidy to employers needs to wither on the vine.

There is an awful lot that can be done. But a can do attitude is needed. That or the country sinks compared to other nations. We won’t keep up.

The UK is definitely in a productivity crisis - I read somewhere recently that we are 20% less productive than the US and the guy who was talking about it was comparing UK and US students and said the drive was totally different. College students there wanted to start businesses and create things whereas in the UK the mindset was totally different. Productivity drives growth which powers the economy and unless things change it does point towards a grim future.

What kind of specialists settings have you been in?
My youngest son is severly autistic with severe learning disabillitis
His special school caters for children ,with severe and ptofound learning disabilities.

Lack of jail time. That's because prisons are full. Also. Governments are looking at diversions from prosecution. There are lots of reasons why people offend. Locking people up and throwing away the key isn't always the answer

I haven't worked since I was 18. Been on sickness benefits with nerves and depression since then so 48 years, just transferred to pension. Haven't had a bad life, got married still and wife worked so I looked after two kids. Grand-kids now.

Young people can't afford kids and increasingly most people won't be able to afford kids.

Anyone who's worked for the NHS will be aware that some staff arent fit for work until their sick pay (full pay) runs out.

Then they magically become well enough.

The question of adults not being "well enough " to work is far from black and white.