Mental Health – Talk or Stay Silent?

Also at http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/jayne-linney/mental-health-talk-or-stay-silent_b_9416632.html

Today Mind have launched their “Take Off The Tape” Campaign which focusses on Anxiety; their website states “Do you talk about what’s most worrying you? Or do you keep your mouth shut about things that make you anxious?… Stop being silenced by your anxiety“.

Whilst as a mental health sufferer and counsellor  I welcome this recognition of the dangers and devastation of living with poor mental health, and can understand how talking openly about their anxieties and concerns might be of some help in some cases. The relief of ‘getting things of your chest’ can help you feel lighter and may for  while,help with the symptoms but faced with a personal trigger and you’re right back where you were, because talking does not help deal with the cause of your mental health.

Mental Health is currently being widely acknowledged, from the media to government  as a real problem, This may have something to do with the growing numbers of people experiencing poor mental health, this rise is being witnessed in children, employees, new mums and the Armed forces, to name just a few of the recognised groups , but whatever the reason, most reports concur the rise is down to  cuts to services and the pressures of the Austerity agenda; even the Governments ‘pledge’ for a revolution in mental health treatment and the accompanying investment in services,  accepts poor Mental Health is to do with poverty.

Living in Poverty from the real fears of not being able to manage financially to the social isolation it causes is extremely stressful, and excessive stress is an established trigger for depression (i). Add to this ill health, another one of the biggest causes of stress , and you regularly have a situation for mental melt down; and we at DEAEP are seeing numerous examples of this. People are coming to us trapped in this viscous cycle of poverty & depression, most of them are experiencing benefit cuts and are being offered no option other surviving with less than they need; and in the most extreme cases or being institutionalised. Is it any wonder these people are finding themselves experiencing extreme pain, exasperation of existing conditions and Mental Health problems?

What I find most disconcerting, is whilst mental health as a health issue, is experiencing the benefits of publicity and recognition;what is less acknowledged is the associated rise in penalisation of those of us with poor mental health. We are at a much higher risk of being detained against our will, with a 9.8% increase, almost Double the figures for 1013/14,  of people being detained under the Mental Health Act; We are more likely to be sanctioned if we claim benefits with a 600% rise over the past four years, and whilst 6,122 of us over the age of 10 committed suicide in 2014, the rates for both women and men outside of  institutions rose.  Given this it seems we’re equally damned if we do admit our vulnerabilities and Talk.

 

 

 

i Makosky, V. P. (1982) ‘Sources of stress: Events or conditions? ‘ In: D. Belle (ed.) Lives in stress: Women and Depression, pp. 35–53. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage

A Message From The Ghost Of Christmas Yet To Come…

I just HAD to repost this – A #TORY Christmas from stilloaks2.

ENJOY xxx

SO, The Archbishop offers platitudes to Mail Readers

Apologies in advance to any protestant Christians.

I’m Livid, the bloody Eton schooled Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has finally spoke up on people going hungry here in the UK ; so what does he do, writes in the Mail on Sunday. He use this space to preach about bigger foodbanks, a rise in the minimum wage, free school meals all year round and making it harder to sanction benefit recipients.

I admit as an atheist, I think the only point of Churches are as Historical buildings, linked to a time of blind obedience to a richer man; and the sanctimonious drivel from Welby  has not changed my opinion.

If this man was really worried about the poorer people

• he’d be leading an inquiry into WHY we need Foodbanks not talking of expending them
• he’d be campaigning for a decent Living Wage not a mere increase of the minimum;
• he’d by demanding to know WHY people on benefits are bring treated as forth class citizens and
• he’d by instructing his churches to pay taxes on their income.

This would be something worth writing about?

We’re DEAEP – Can WE Help YOU??

Originally Posted on November 4, 2014 by deaeper

We’re DEAEP – Can WE Help YOU??

Disability Enabling & Empowerment Project, DEAEP, is a relatively new company run by disabled people and carers; we enable other disabled people to develop the confidence to regain control of their lives, supporting them through benefit claims and also training others to do the same.

Our Courses are aimed at disabled and chronically ill people, affording them the opportunities to expand their skill base and potentially improve their quality of life through enabling them to make positive steps towards Further Education and, or possible employment.

DEAEP has the capacity to offer not only, training and links to employment but we also aim to employ our successful trainees to act as peer supporters to others and potentially as other trainers.

DEAEP are currently running a Level 3 Peer Support in Action course which consists of 5 core modules aimed at anyone who wishes to train to help others. We also develop bespoke courses for other professionals engaged in working with disabled people and other disadvantaged groups

All the above is available in further detail on our website

DEAEP also run a professional representation service supporting people to complete benefit application forms, PIP/ESA, appeals etc; we will also attend assessments/ formal appointments with disabled or other disadvantaged people who find themselves needing support. DEAEP can support individuals from the start to completions of benefit claims.

If you or your company require any help whether it training or representation please contact us via our website.

DEAEP has the advantage of being the only company that aims solely to empower the disabled community and employs people with personal experience of the difficulties that disabled people face every day.

DWP Breaks its Own Rules when threatening Support Group Members

Further to my post earlier this week, today another example of the most seriously ill disabled people being told they must attend work focussed interviews or else be sanctioned; never mind this is in direct conflict with the DWP’s own guidance which states :

“Support Group

If you have a condition that severely limits what you can do, you’ll be in the support group. You’ll not be expected to look for work and we won’t expect you to take place in any work-focussed interviews”.

How the DWP are going to Spin this is yet yo been seen; what I do know is this is yet another time this unelected Government has deliberately broke it’s own rules and then Lied about it!

This ongoing Discriniation against Disabled People is  Totally Unacceptable & I can only hope people say ENOUGH

It is Time to Join the Truth Campaign and Sign the Petition  to STOP The SPIN.

#NOWPetition #Impeach DWP

Time For The Truth

I’ve discussed the behaviour of the DWP misusing Statistics on several occasions, from our successful petition asking the Welfare & Pensions Select to investigate these actions, to the introduction of  the newly formed single fraud investigation service, (SFIS), allegedly costing £140 million. The misrepresentation of information is how different Politicians have repeatedly spoken on Welfare Reform, they have persisted with their interpretations even after the UK Statistics Authority have refuted it.

The Governments rationale behind such conduct certainly indicates their increasing use of  psychological coercion with various Departments insisting, their version of data is correct rejecting all alternate information and separate opinions, they have devised rules that control the topics they determine permissible to discuss, and all communication is highly controlled.

A recent example of this was the development of  SFIS a cross Government strategy to reduce fraud and error”. I’ve previously considered the validity of the DWP’s claim, this group was established to save money, but with One Billion Pound being spent to reduce the cost of Fraud & Error, when the total annual amount lost  is One Billion Pound, this seems highly unlikely? The official press release from the DWP quoted Lord Freud’s claims “Jobseeker’s Allowance and Income Support fraud and error overpayments are at their lowest recorded levels.” Yet looking closer at this claim we find Council Tax data is no longer included in DWP figures, the responsibility has shifted to Local Authorities and this Tax is equivalent to  “2% of overall welfare expenditure” which is the difference  in Fraud and Error pre the inception of SFIS.

This example fulfils both the definition of  psychological coercion above and as used by Dr Lynne Friedli in her claim, Government uses such  to ‘formulate and gain consent for the current regime of welfare reform’. Friedli also discusses how psychological coercion affects the way both claimants feel about themselves and those not claiming benefits view others; this becomes even more relevant when the misuse of data by Government is reported verbatim by the media, as it reinforces the principles and purpose behind programmes like SFIS.

The incessant use of psychological coercion has multiple negative affects, it results in the recipient becoming “confused, intimidated and silenced by actions accepted as harmful, such as uncompromising influence, involuntary servitude, and infliction of emotional distress“; it leaves us “compliant” and ultimately brainwashed. Interestingly The Home Office already includes coercive control as an element of abuse, but only as it applies to domestic violence.

The fact the Government’s Department responsible for Law, recognises the damage of psychological coercion, is an irony not to be lost, as we continue to struggle against the gamut of detrimental Policies and daily rhetoric of  media coercion; nor should the paradox of the Government’s attempts to catch people allegedly falsely claiming benefits, whilst using falsified data to justify the expense.

Time For The Truth?

 

 

UK Poverty IS a National Disgrace – For Everyone

This is an email I felt had to be wriiten, it was sent to Paul O’ Grady in response to his article on Child Poverty in yesterday’s Mirror – sent to him via his website email

 

Dear Paul

 

Further to your article in the Mirror today, whilst I totally agree with you, I wish you and others concerned with this disgraceful situation,would also acknowledge this problem extends to include Millions of disabled, elderly and other vulnerable people; in fact dozens of disabled people are dying weekly and to date the figure since the inception of Welfare Reform could be as high as 38,000+

 

I totally concur with your points that poorer children are more likely to have mental health problems, and again this is the position with all people in poverty;

and I agree the current position should be a national disgrace, particularly whilst the Richest prosper disproportionally in the UK. Embarrassingly whilst the treatment of disabled people is so severe, our media, in the main ignores it, and yet other nationalities agree it warrants reporting in their National Press press, I refer to this article in Le Monde

 

I hope you can find the time to read the links as I’m sure you will agree that Poverty in the UK is a Disgrace regardless of the people it affects.

 

Regards

 

Jayne Linney

I’ll let you know if I get a response

 

MORE Reasons to Sign – STOP Ministers Spinning Stats (or LYING)

Over the weekend I’ve noticed three separate articles all linked to DWP actions that, we the public have been LIED TO about by Ids, McVey, Penning & even Consultants –

The Guardian wrote how – Frank Field MP has found Evidence behind growth in food banks and benefits claimants; Field as chair of the all-party group set up to investigate hunger and food poverty discovered “the disproportionately large increase (use of food banks) seen in the poorest households is due entirely to rising housing and fuel costs” . However this week McVey wrote to the Scottish Government this week stating there is “no robust evidence linking food bank usage to welfare reform”  

Fellow blogger Kitty Jones reported on – Rising ESA sanctions with a rise of “334% between December 2012 and December 2013″; it took a Freedom of Information request to release even these figures which are an ‘estimate. Debbie Abrahams MP asked McVey for an Independent investigation  into the growing number of sanctions last November, which she agreed to however ” the Government have now said they won’t set one up“; what could possibly be the reason for this, Abrahams believes “The last thing Iain Duncan Smith and Esther McVey want is for that uncomfortable truth to be uncovered by a focussed and independent investigation.”

Mike Sivier at Vox Political questioned How Prof Lichfield, the man assessing the suitability of WCA could claim he hadn’t “any information” and he hadn’t “seen numbers” on any people “dying every week as a result of being found fit for work after an assessment”; as Mike says “He could have, at least, looked up the government’s own statistical release‘Incapacity Benefits – Deaths of Recipients’ from July 2012“. Further it doesn’t take any mathematical experience to make an informed estimate as to the current figure, I did this this in February suggesting  the number could be as high as “38,564 deaths over the 3 years the Coalition has been in Government.”.

These are three different situations where Ministers and the DWP Press office lie to the public about the Reality of life as a benefit claimant in the UK today, and it is for these and numerous other incidents where the Truth is hidden and denied that Debbie & I have published our 2nd petition  demanding the House of Commons STOP Minsters spinning statistics.

We Deserve the Truth from our Politicians, particularly when their Polices result in Poverty, Abuse & Death, if you agree – Sign & Share the #NowPetition widely and help us #ImpeachDWP 

 

 

 

 

The French view of Welfare Reform

A couple of months or so ago I had a phone call out of the blue from a French journalist for Le Monde, based in London; wanting to interview me and another couple of disabled people about how we feel regarding Welfare Reform; of course I agreed.

Eric Allbert, the journalist, needed to conduct the interviews that week so I arranged for my daughter, Nicki Linney and another campaigner Kitt Bolton, to meet, Eric travelled up to Leicester to speak with is; he was at my home for almost 3 hours, and spoke at length with with of us about our experiences.

The point of this for we campaigners was to tell Trench readers of Le Monde, precisely what was going on in the UK and how the Governments Welfare Reform Act really affected disabled people.

The article was printed last month, and unfortunately when translated, takes some concentration due to grammar differences;  all I can add is I hope you agree, we did us all justice

 

Jayne Linney call it “syndrome brown envelope.” Severely disabled after two car accidents, this 52 year old woman, met in mid-April, lives with the fear of receivingin his mailbox a summons to a medical examination to assess their disability.“Whenever I hear the postman, I have a lump in the stomach. “

His fear follows the traumatic experience she had during its last assessment. In 2010, Jayne had stopped working , reluctantly, but her physician. The aftermath of his accident worsened, and also serious difficulties in walking and a partially paralyzed left arm, she suffered from incontinence and fibromyalgia, a disease that causes severe pain throughout the body.

“NURSE ME screamed”

In 2012, she was summoned to a medical examination by the French companyAtos , which carries out the assessment of disabilities on behalf of the British government. “Nothing had prepared me to face someone as openly hostile. One of the exercises was to put on tiptoe. I am incapable, but the nurse yelled at me, accusing me of not making effort. “Test result: zero point, then it takes five havethe right to disability allowance. Jayne might lose her only source of income and she grabbed the justice . A court ruled in his favor eighteen months later. “The judge looked at my file and I immediately questioned my incontinence, which is a simple criterion to evaluate . In three minutes he ruled in my favor. “

It was only the beginning. Two months after her court victory, Jayne was called for a medical examination. In total , it has been tested five times in three years by Atos. With one exception, the experience has been extremely unpleasant. When she finally got satisfaction, it was necessary to fight against a system it deems organized against the disabled.

This system was developed by the British government, who wants to make money by pushing disabled people who can to return to work. If the goal may be laudable, the method to achieve this is denounced: the tests are rigid and thousands of false cases have been documented.

A MAN IN COMA DEEMED FIT TO WORK

Among those deemed able to work were a man in a coma, people who died shortly after, and others who were unable to walk more than a few tens of meters withoutregain their breath … Nearly 40% of people who appealed the decision have won against the courts.

If the final decision on the allocation of social benefits is the government, medical examinations are outsourced to Atos, a company led by Thierry Breton, the former economy minister.

Since it is at the heart of the scandal, accused of incompetence and insensitivity.On 27 March, it announced that it was abandoning the contract signed in 2005 and which was come to an end in August 2015. The company said s’ stop voluntarily.She wants to put an end to many insults and threats received by its employees.More importantly, the French company withdrew to stop the financial bleeding.

ATOS SAYS DOES HAVE MADE NO PROFIT

There are two years, as the scandal began to take momentum, a written evaluation of disability to perform the medical staff was added to the test, which previously consisted of boxes to check . This has made the grade in the assessment of the patient, but it has increased by one third the length of treatment of each case. Atos, profitability dropped into the red.

“Ultimately, the entire contract, since 2005, we have made ​​no profit,” says Michel-Alain Proch, CFO of Atos. Contract between a loss and a tarnished public image, the French company wanted to cut short the disaster.

“IF YOU ARE NOT in a wheelchair … “

“I do not think a single person with a disability will be sad to know that Atos no longer supports these assessments, “said Richard Hawkes, director of Scope, an association of aid for the disabled. He believes, however, that the departure of the company may not change much. Atos simply to apply medical examinations developed by the British government. The questionnaire, inflexible, tends not totake into account the obvious handicaps, questioning the symptoms less noticeable. “If you’re not in a wheelchair, we do not believe you,” says Nicky Linney, the daughter Jayne, who also suffers from fibromyalgia.

But the two women also believe that Atos has made ​​no effort to make the process bearable. Together they created a small association to support disabled during their medical evaluation. With two slogans: never make one test, and alwaysrequire registration.

Thus Kitt Boulton, achieving myalgic encephalopathy (chronic fatigue), was accompanied. “For years, I was terrified at the idea of being called for these exams. When I received the letter in November 2012, I was panicked. “It has been successful, but after a harrowing period.” Rules have been put in place by the government, and he is primarily responsible for the current situation, “she says.

• Eric Albert (Leicester, Special Envoy)
• http://www.lemonde.fr/europe/article/2014/04/25/au-royaume-uni-des-methodes-brutales-pour-remettre-au-travail-les-handicapes_4407361_3214.html

Real Issues with Welfare reform – Part II

On April 8 I wrote my first official DEAEP Blog, regarding the support we offer, this week Alex & I attended his Tribunal. we arrived at the venue, in a central hotel, to find the tribunal receptionist was extremely chatty; he happily informed the room that there were people from all over the UK, booked to attend, he went on to state every one of the claimants had waited for well over a year to get a hearing! He also informed us that for the day the Tribunal service had paid for 6 meeting rooms –  for hearings, waiting rooms and a room for the court clerks; add the expense for this to the salaries of at least 6 panellists (possibly 8), 3 clerks and the receptionist; and I shudder to think how much this must have cost?!

We were called in on time and given that the DWP had already agreed that Alex should be in the Support group in February 2013, we were expecting this to be a open & shut case but…NO. Firstly the DWP had failed to inform the panel they had AGREED they’d made a mistake, luckily the accepted the letter we had as full evidence; however instead of recognising that the DWP had already accepted Alex was too ill to work, and therefore he had every right to receive the back pay, the judge of the panel grilled Alex for 45 minutes on his inability to work in November 2012. We were made to explain, against each of the ESA qualifying points, that how for a whole 3 months, before the DWP agreed Alex’s health made him unable to work, this was the case. The Dr on the panel on at least four occasions referred to how, in his medical opinion, Alex’s handwriting on the appeal letter clearly indicated Parkinsons, as did his observation of Alex’s body; but the judge persisted in her questions, reducing Alex to tears on one occasion! Why was this – for MONEY – and for a far less amount than the 2 panellists earned in hour we were in there, never mind the the costs of the day’s Tribunal as outlined above; but for an amount that means Alex can afford to live a little more comfortably.

The good news is Alex WON his tribunal but…surely as the DWP had already conceded, wouldn’t it have been far more cost effective, never mind humane, for them to have merely paid him the money he was owed? According to Channel 4 Employment and support allowance (ESA) tribunals cost the taxpayer £66m in 2012/13, and this fails to consider the hidden costs of anxiety and stress to the claimant, both personally and in terms of the Health/support services, consider all of this and what a ludicrous situation this proves to be.

I don’t presume Alex’s case to be unique and given the number of successful tribunals by sick and, or disabled people, this is yet more evidence the current ESA/WCA process is severely flawed.