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 agree and I say this frequently. We’re already on that trajectory in that the number if young people claiming PIP is increasing.

Spend time in schools and you’ll see how large the number of children is who will clearly never work for various reasons.

There are plenty of people unemployed in this country we dont need to bring more in

A less honest way of saying, 'let's just sweep this under the carpet'.

I think that rather than preparing for more mentally ill people the question should be asked what is contributing to this? Poverty, poor housing, stress, inequality, discrimination all contribute to poor mental heath. The answer is to make Britain a healthier place to be.

Being on benefits is not a crime. So making them do some sort of community pay back wont work. Or are you just wanting benefit claimants to be in high viz bibs in public so everyone knows who they are?

If the woeful education system actually gets a huge shake up (and society in general!), then far more young people will be able to live a fully independent tax paying life. But also, pigs might fly…

It’s definitely a phenomenon and good Q OP.

They’d be employed… Not sure how recently you have been to a hospital but a large proportion of the nurses are from overseas.

How about if these jobs need doing we pay people a decent wage to do them instead of a wage that can barely be existed on? Less people on benefits then! Radical huh!

But what do people want from this thread? Yes there are more children diagnosed with SEND. Yes they will become adults. What do you propose we do about that?

2.6 job seekers to every vacancy.

Regarding young people today ( 20-30' s). Yes there are huge numbers who are neurodiverse, and with MH issues etc but there are also many who are living a lot more healthy lifestyles then my generation did at that age. None of my four kids in their twenties drink much at all, one is extremely obsessed with nutrition, going to the gym, leading a healthy lifestyle. My dd whilst not being able to afford the gym walks miles etc. Talking to other mums they all seem to be leading healthy lifestyles so I'm hoping that as this generation reach their fifties and sixties they will hopefully be in good shape.

Some of these anxious people may feel better able to cope if they got off the internet, turned off the tv and developed some interests or hobbies. I do think these things have made anxiety and not leaving the house or bedroom much worse. I recall very few if any young people struggling like this when I was a teenager.

Yes because babies who’d have died 30 years ago are surviving.

What should we do about any looming future issue? Try to mitigate it early as that’s better for everyone involved?

If I knew the answer I wouldnt have started the thread.

So how do you mitigate it?

No idea hence my asking. Any suggestions?

Yes, how do you somehow create less disabled people?

Well it used to be vaccines, health and safety, universal healthcare, a proper sewage and water system and better maternity care. But obviously thats not working any more

It’s not about creating less disabled people. It’s about creating an environment where more disabled people can work.

I don’t know what the answer is - perhaps giving employers incentives to employ disabled people?

I think that was to reduce infant deaths, not to reduce disability. You can’t really reduce disability unless you want to get into eugenics in a serious way, and things like autism can’t be screened for in utero.

Health and safety at work reduced infant deaths?

That will never happen, especially in the lower paid jobs. They want the best of the best.
So bump disabled folks off benefits, but there will be no jobs for them.

I think a lot of the mental health issues, the rise of extreme feeling about many things, that we are seeing across all age groups but especially the young, are tightly linked to the screen based culture that is all pervading.

There is an element of contagion to many things - in the early 00’s it was magazines constantly discussing weight which influenced a generations fractured eating habits, now it is a curated algorithm that spews that same information at them over and over again that they carry in their pocket. The same is also true of right wing propaganda - never more influential than it is now.

Hard to unring the bell but I think it needs to be done for the greater good.

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.