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 wonder if the rising cost of living and both parents needing to work full time to maintain a basic standard of living has affected the mental health of young people.

Extensive research and evidence within attachment theory highlights that for children aged 0-3, a significant part of building secure attachments is having one primary care giver who meets the majority of their needs.

So what happens when both parents are forced to work full time to keep a roof over their heads, and toddlers are in nursery for 8+ hours a day, 5 days a week, in understaffed nurseries with a key-worker who is split between 5 other children, and numerous other members of staff who change daily? Those children only actually see their primary care giver for breakfast, dinner and bed, and won't always get their emotional needs met promptly in nursery.

Once upon a time grandparents could help out. But now grandparents are still working full time as well.

That has to be having an impact of levels of anxiety some young people experience.

Of course it’s incorrect in many cases but in the cases I have read and know about with ‘burnout’ young people, in 90% of cases they sit on tablets, phones or gaming devices all day.

Does it stop you working? Some mornings I'm so crippled with anxiety, money worries, and workload concerns I can hardly move out of bed. I do, though, because what's the alternative? Who'd pay my bills?

I think if Nazi Germany is the aim, they’re not doing a good job with it - disability benefits are very very very high (this isn’t a value judgement this is factual), the NHS remains free at point of use, no abortions are forced but are offered and so on. None of this points to Nazi Germany to me.

It’s difficult to know whether you are stronger and more determined than those who don’t make it out of bed or whether they are struggling even more than you.
ESA and PIP will pay your bills if you are unable to work through illness or disability

I have ptsd and depression as well and I had a triple leg fracture two years ago that I eventually got disability benefits for for a short period of time while the injury healed.

You can work if you get Pip or lcwra or not if you aren't well enough.

You are just reinforcing the myth that people with mental health issues aren't really unwell. I have been through the lcwra process three times. I didn't get it three times when I was on medication. Once under the care of a psychologist and with a ptsd diagnosis. It's not easy to get. Many people are refused

But to go back to my actual OP what happens when we have hundreds of thousands or even millions of adults too anxious to leave their bedrooms, with ageing parents and a tiny pool of taxpayers? I know everyone will nonsense this but I’m yet to see many of these school refuses who are late teens and early 20s get a job. They’re all still at home, less able to cope than ever. I think this will be 2 of my relatives. Their parents think this too.

Given that phones and other devices can be used for many things - gaming, socialising, learning, education, watching shows or films, applying for jobs, etc - it’s hard to conclude anything even if it’s true.

What should they be doing instead, in your view?

I think it's astonishing that there's this narrative (this isn't a dig at you btw) that people who have mental health issues and work are strong and people on benefits are less strong

I worked to the point where I just couldn't anymore. I was stalked for 15 months then there was one huge event that almost ruined my life. I was really unwell - and the dwp kept saying - no you're fit to work. And a comment was made in a previous post that someone like me is a lazy bastard - because I have anxiety

It’s not that I think they should be doing anything else specifically but spending your life in the same 4 walls was very dull when I was a teenager and therefore an incentive to leave them.

My wife's disabled, and gets PIP and a Blue Badge, but she works full time in NHS Scotland as a nursing assistant. Her life's hell due to the pain she's in but we can't afford for her to give up work, but I don't think she'll be able to work for all that much longer. We'd be sunk if she couldn't work just now, though.

I was too anxious to leave my house because I had ptsd. Not anxiety. However lcwra is being cut in half for new claimants and if there's a change of govt pretty sure there's going to be a benefits shake up

I don’t know how old you are but phones and other devices weren’t around when I was a teenager so I had to leave my room to do all the things listed. But now, teenagers can do them at home.

So what’s your point? You want them to things that aren’t boring? You want them to leave the house? What evidence is there that doing that would result in fewer disabled adults (your starting point)?

If a person says they can’t some in to work as they are suffering with a burnout you can’t force them to come in and say you are putting them on a plan. When on burnout leave they are put on an integration plan but it needs there cooperation and a develop plan can only be put in place once they are seen as fully recovered.

The response was about you and you possibly being able to claim lwrca or Pip and still be able to work. I find it very sad that you think some people with mental health issues are lazy just because you manage it

I think you can yes, you can take them through the sickness or performance process and manage them out if they are not medically unwell. I don’t believe burnout is a medically recognised condition, so to continue on sick pay they would need a diagnosis/sick note. If your company is paying burnout leave for anyone that calls in and says ‘I have burnout, I’m not coming in’ then they’ve only got themselves to blame.

Employers can get rid of people through capability if they are unwell and it's also easier to do that if they have less than two years service. Employees sickness pay doesn't last forever either. When that runs out then the employee would need to claim benefits if they aren't well enough to work

The point here is not that people with (say) schizophrenia, genetic issues or similar conditions should just "get on with it", when that is obviously an unrealistic expectation. It's the grey area in the middle where the assessment is less clear that is the problem. Less available work is part of it, but it's also due to some people's willingness to avoid work and get something for nothing if they can. The work ethic in this country has really changed in the past 50 years and the recognition that we give work life balance has provided a vehicle for that. Faced with a choice of living in a country with very little economic wealth or people accepting a bit more strain on their mental health, I know which I would choose. Being idle does not support anyone's mental health, and being poor is certainly bad for it.

Firstly if that happens I'll eat my hat.

Secondly I can't help but feel older people, and I'm talking older than me (I'm 43) who parented harshly want validation, want those parenting kindly to ultimately be harming their children.

Because I know if I'd parented harshly, if I'd parented like my parents and their parents, I'd carry enormous guilt but if I was emotionally unable to deal with that guilt I'd be looking externally for validation of my methods.

And if that's you, which si how it sounds, or alternatively you're potentially a grouchy non parent who doesn't want to be bothered by people entertaining their kids having feelings then I guess we just see how it pans out

Ok so I am not in the uk so may be different but where I am you can’t manage them out for 2 years. They don’t need a medical diagnosis from their own doctor but will have discussions with the company doctor which is an external party (initially by phone ) and it doesn’t take much for them to agree that someone can’t work. The company doctor then manages the process (working with hr) to get them back to work but it can take a long time.

We don't manage it. Not properly. My wife can hardly walk at night when she gets home, and she's still in mourning, to an extent, due to her mum's death last June. We're in turmoil if I'm being perfectly honest with you. I'm 60 in two months, and I've been looking for a job I can do at night or weekends to help make ends meet, but I need to be there for my wife as well. I don't know what to do. Everything's a mess.

Working doesn't always help peoples mental health either.
As I said previously I have been through the process of lcwra three times for mental health. Refused every time even when I was very unwell. I also don't get something for nothing. I paid into the system for decades

People like me have to get on with it according to some people. Because Im not really unwell in their eyes. Im lazy and I want something for nothing

Ah ok, sorry I should have checked rather than assumed. In that case I have no idea, it sounds wild though - phone in with burnout, stay on full pay? Why wouldn’t everyone do that?!

That’s not I’m saying. If anything, it’s the opposite and that no one should judge as they haven’t walked in the other persons shoes. FWIW, I’m off work with MH issues and I’m not lazy