The Mental Health Forms

Being a service user in the mental health system, I have to fill out forms. Forms most users get another person to help them with. They are long, and very detailed.

The first one you fill in you understand it being long and detailed. This is how they get to know you, to make their decision.  When you get your second, third and so on, they send the same form, the same length, the same amount detail. It made me wonder.

Have they lost all the details I sent the first time? Why is there not a follow up form for long term ill people? Do they think I have been cured in-between forms? Do they think I and my team of professionals, who help, would be dishonest?

I have been given professionals to help me, I didn’t hire them myself. They also write to back up the forms, so they know who they are.  So if they all agree (because it is a team, not an individual who helps.) Why do the people who pay me, show such doubt? 

To fill in the book they send I need someone to give me some time. It takes a few hours, sometimes more if my head is in a bad state. Then I have to remember to get letters from others. Then I worry and fret. Then I fret and worry. If I’m in a bad mental health state, than I can close off from the world. Why don’t they believe me? Why are they checking again? Why is this happening to me? Paranoia starts to run rampant.

So my mental health at the beginning has fallen as I fill the form. I’m stressed. Now I’m wondering; why they just couldn’t be bothered to write a follow up form? Why can’t they be bothered to understand people with mental health conditions?

For Information and help on any mental health issues go to Mind.

©Louise Goodson/Magicmayflower.

Important Advice for the Atos Medical Examination: Beware the warm smile and the gentle voice!

I was at the SHP blog workshop on Friday when a conversation began about the Atos medical examination and about the assessment procedure. One of the participants in the conversation had recently been for a medical examination she had taken a friend to observe the procedure. Her friend began taking notes at which point the examiner told the person to stop as it is not allowed.

That was wrong.

WE CANNOT AFFORD TO EAT

I get £102.00 a week and most of that goes on bills.  I am left with £7.00 to last me two weeks for food. It has got to the point where I have to go to charities to be able to eat to live. I feel ashamed and humiliated that I have to do this but I have no choice.

 I suffer from anxiety, panic attacks, and arthritis, and this situation and pressure the government is putting me under is giving me a lot stress and therefore making my illness worse to the point where my doctor has increased my medication.

I have lived in my home for years and it is our family home.  I have a two bedroom maisonette and I am currently paying bedroom tax that brings me into poverty.

My children stay overnight frequently to care for me. I have grand children that stay regularly and furniture that I have built up over years to make it a home and to move would be mentally and emotional torture for me, as I have put a lot of love and memories into my home. All my furniture would be left behind because they would not fit into a one bedroom and I would be Isolated as my family would not be able to stay with me.

The government have taken money from the taxpayers to buy nuclear weapons and new transport which we don’t need. We also paid for Margaret Thatcher’s funeral: who is going to pay for our funerals? I cannot afford to and have spoke to a lot of people who feel the same.  

by Theresa K

The Tory Nasty Party are back: Lord Freud and the Bedroom Tax

I could not believe what I was hearing on the B.B.C.  Radio Five Live Victoria Derbyshire morning programme in a discussion with Lord Freud and Radio Five listeners about the imminent new Under Occupancy Act, otherwise infamously known as the Bedroom Tax. This tax comes into effect on Monday 1^st April 2013.

The Bedroom Tax is where people who have a spare bedroom and are on a benefit will have their housing benefit cut.

Lord Freud was asked specific questions by listeners regarding how the tax would affect them.

One had a son in the army and wanted to keep his bedroom for when the son was on leave so he felt he had a home to come back to. Another had separated from his wife and the 3 children stayed with him at the weekend, the school holidays and at other times.  Another had disabilities that affected his breathing and he had to use an oxygen tank and other apparatus to help him breathe. He had to sleep with his head raised on the bed so he slept in a separate room from his wife so they could both sleep without him disturbing her from the noise of the oxygen and his sleeping position in the bed. Another had a daughter going to university.

Lord Freud did not answer the specific questions asked by people on the phone but choose to give the bog standard Government answer such as “difficult times, times of austerity” we need to reform the system to stop the scroungers, [my words], living in luxury (?) with too many rooms that they don’t need.

Here is the solution that Lord Freud gave to the tenants:

To the father who has his children stay at the weekends and various other nights Lord Freud said: “He should move to a one bedroom house then buy a sofa bed so the 3 children could sleep in the living room.”

To the parents of the student at university he said; “Why don’t you take in a lodger.” So what does the daughter do when she returns home for a weekend visit and during the holidays? Sleep with the lodger? Obviously he is not aware that as a student living in student accommodation it is classed as temporary accommodation. The man with breathing and other medical problems he ignored.

It beggars belief that this Lord of the realm, who is the Prime Minister David Cameron’s Under Secretary of State (Lords) for the Department of Work and Pensions, who between January 2008 and February 2009 acted as an advisor on welfare reform to the U.K. government, is ignorant of the tenancy law; that he does not know that under the tenancy agreement between a tenant and the local council or housing association it is illegal to sublet any part of the accommodation. Yet here he is happily telling people to break the conditions of their tenancy agreement.  

Apart from Lord Freud’s lack of knowledge regarding tenancy agreements, I feel it shows the arrogance of members of the Tory party to tell people to say “It is alright, just take in a lodger”. Problem solved, easy peasy. 

Say it did happen. First of all it would lead to complications on any welfare payment they receive whether they are working or not.  Probably any welfare benefit they get would be cut or stopped including their rent and council tax payments. Would the tax man have interest in this extra income?

What about insurance cover? Many insurance companies will not insure you or the house if you have a lodger, or the premium is very expensive. What happens when the offspring comes home from University and the Army? Do they sleep in the living room or the bathroom? Do you want a lodger in your house using all the facilities?

This is rich coming from a man who owns two large houses. One, a country mansion in Kent, which is believed to be one of the oldest in England, has eight bedrooms. The other is a £1.9 million four bedroom house in Highgate, London that he shares with his wife. So that is a total of 12 bedrooms for two people which of eight are only used at weekends, holidays or for entertaining on special occasions.

What a hypocrite Lord Freud is. A man who owns two homes with twelve bedrooms for two people is plunging over 100,000 people into poverty, causing them extreme anxiety and leading to their illnesses becoming acute. 

Is this not a form of “ethnic cleansing,” this time done on a socio-economic scale rather than a race or religious doctrine?

Just to show this multi-millionaire’s arrogance and lack of feeling for the working class communities, vulnerable and people with mental or physical problems, Lord Freud stated in an interview with The House magazine, "We've got the circumstances now where... people who are poorer should be prepared to take the biggest risks - they've got least to lose."

The Tory “Nasty Party” is back with a vengeance.

McTaggart

Are the Irish politicians aware we are now in the 21st Century?

I ask this regarding the case of Pauline Conboy a 46 year old woman with Down’s syndrome who had her passport confiscated.  Her crime was to attempt to fly to Florida to visit her brother and family to see if she would like to live there.    

Pauline lived with her Mother until her Mother’s death last year. Pauline needs some support to live but is mostly independent. It was planned that if Pauline liked it she could live with her brother and his family in Florida.

Here comes the crux of the matter: for some reason the Irish passport office took Pauline’s passport off her denying her the right as human being to travel to meet her brother and family in the U.S.A. The reason for this to quote:  “The Irish Passport Office took my passport and my rights away just over a year ago because they claim they got a "report" but it's a secret report and they won't show it to anyone - I'm not kidding!”

Pauline’s plight has been ignored by the passport office officials and the Passport Office Director responsible for the passport office. The Director had the arrogance, or was it he felt embarrassed and shameful about the situation, to leave his office early on a Friday afternoon when he knew that Pauline and her sister in law were packing their bags and trying to contact him to leave on a plane to Florida.  No doubt he had to go to his weekend retreat and prepare for his evening dinner party.

The Irish passport office will not budge and appears to be hiding behind smoke screens and feeble excuses by stating that a disabled person needs to have a “legal guardian”. The Irish Passports Act 2008 allows people with disabilities to "duly authorise" anyone to fill out and sign an application form so there is no need in law to have a “legal guardian”.

Pauline Conboy says: “So it is not Irish law that is wrong, it is the Passport Office Director and the Minister for Foreign Affairs who don't seem to understand that I am entitled to the same rights as everyone else, so please don't let them get away with this discrimination and injustice.

I ask this question: Are the people involved in the decision to confiscate Pauline’s passport to embarrassed to admit to their mistake and stubbornly standing by the decision to save criticism and face?    

Is it not a fact that the Irish Government has allowed Pedophile Priests to leave the country without any questions, harassment or charges to travel to the other countries with their passports intact. 

From Pauline’s site:

Please call or email the Irish Passport Office at +353 1 671 1633, Email: Joseph.Nugent@dfa.ie, and ask them to give Pauline Conboy her passport PC8471397 back right away. It is so hard on me and my family to be kept apart like this for no reason.  We have done nothing wrong to deserve this.  I just want to spend time with my family who love me, just like I did in the past before my passport was taken away. It's not fair that I am now being stopped from leaving the country for no reason.  Thank you for helping me because by helping me you are also helping other people with disabilities as well as helping preserve everyone's rights.

Pauline Conboy says: “So it is not Irish law that is wrong, it is the Passport Office Director and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, who don't seem to understand that I am entitled to the same rights as everyone else, so please don't let them get away with this discrimination and injustice.”
The Minister for Foreign affairs is Eamon Gilmore T.D. who can be contacted at:
Office of the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade,
Iveagh House,
80 St. Stephen’s Green,
Dublin 2.
Believe it or not he has a degree in Psychology from the University of Galway.

McTaggart

TUC Anti- Austerity March Saturday 20th October 2012 London

Are you going to be at the Anti-Austerity march leaving from the Embankment, London at 12.00 p.m.to Hyde Park?

If not, why not?

There will thousands of people from all over U.K. arriving by coach, train and motor car to demonstrate against the Tory led Coalition government austerity cuts and the Tory dogma that it is the poorest who have to suffer for their austerity programme to work.

There is definitely a hollow ring to the Prime Minister David Cameron’s slogan “that we are all in it together”. Little or no pay rises cuts to social welfare funding and changes to how benefits such as Housing Benefit will be paid whilst cutting the tax threshold that the highest earners in the country have to pay.

The disabled, sick and the terminally ill being passed as fit for work by a biased and disgraceful medical assessment procedure.

Cuts to the N.H.S. budget meaning less staff, ward closures and worst of all hospital closures.  This week it was announced in several counties in England that ambulance stations will be closed in local areas and main “hubs” will replace them. This will mean an ambulance travelling many miles further to an emergency taking a longer tome which is often crucial in saving a person’s life.

Let us make it clear to the Government that we, the people are very unhappy with this Government’s policy on the economy and their programme for austerity cuts.

Join the march on Saturday 20th October at 12.00 p.m. at the Embankment London.

Remember, “We are many but they are few”.

Riddle: what do the police, the Olympics, a man with Parkinson's and 182 cyclists have in common?

The Police arrested the man and the cyclists during the Olympic games.

Arrested man with Parkinson's Disease

A man with Parkinson’s disease was arrested during the Olympic cycling road race because the Surrey Police thought he was not smiling and enjoying the event.

Mark Worsford, 54, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, was arrested for not smiling. The former soldier and martial arts instructor was sitting on a wall when the Surrey Police arrested him for breach of the peace. Mr Worsford was dragged from the 7ft wall, thrown to the ground, handcuffed in front of the watching crowd and bundled unceremoniously into a Police vehicle.

It was Just an Oversight

Recently, a mother of a disabled child was prosecuted by the Department for Work and Pensions for not declaring earnings she received whilst claiming benefit. One could say the mother was 'on the fiddle'.

It was a part time job cleaning a pub for 10 hours a week to help her provide the extras needed for her disabled child.

The mother said it was an oversight and had intended to declare the earnings but just never got around to it. She had offered to repay the money she had received in benefit.

The mother was ordered to repay the money, which she had already offered to do, and was given a suspended prison sentence. The mother was spared a custodial sentence only because she had a disabled child and the child would probably have been taken into care.

“It was an oversight”, said Baroness Warsi after being caught fiddling her House of Lords expenses.

The good Baroness was claiming £165.50 a night for a room she never paid any money for! Baroness Warsi claims (?!!!) she only stayed there twice a week for 6 weeks. That amounts to £1,986.

Not just that, the person, her friend, whom she pleads she paid the rent money to, was living there rent-free.

Why should anyone pay rent money to a friend who is living there rent-free? Either he is ripping her off or there was no money paid, apart from the Tax Payer paying the Tory Party Co-Chairperson. Remember 'we are all in this together', preaches Baroness Warsi at every opportunity she can get.

The good Baroness is quoted saying: “Due to an oversight, for which I take full responsibility, the flat was not included on the Register of Lords’ Interests when its value and the rent received came to exceed the thresholds for disclosure.”

An oversight?

This is the woman who is Co-Chairperson of the Tory Party, the leading party of the coalition in government, who attends meetings at the highest level and steers the Tory party policies.

As yet no action has been taken against the good Baroness, either by the authorities or by the Prime Minister, David Cameron. He has decided there is no case to answer, no inquiry to be held, and defiantly no resignation.

The Baroness admits to the fiddle but as far as the good “Lady” is concerned that is the matter finished with.

No investigation, no charges brought, and defiantly no disciplinary action by the Prime Minister, he who promised to rid the House of Commons of sleaze and corruption, the Tory party or Uncle Tom Cobbly and all.

Compare this to the case of the mother with a disabled child, who was earning about £50.00 a week to help provide for herself and her disabled child. Who was hauled through the court system, photographed, D.N.A. samples taken and finger printed, and now has a criminal record. Spent months not knowing of her or her child’s future, as she may have been sent to prison.

This is a person who would be labeled by the good Baroness Warsi as a “scrounger” and “benefit fiddler”.

The £1,986.00 that the Baroness claimed probably illegally would take the mother working as a cleaner, at £50.00 a week, approximately 40 weeks, that is 10 months, to earn.

Can anyone see the comparison and discrepancies in the two cases of fiddling the tax payer?

McTaggart

Irony and the Paralympics

Does anyone recognise the name ATOS?

If not, then you have never had the courtesy of an invite by them on behalf of the Department of Work and Pensions, for a Benefits Assessment Medical Examination. I use the words "Medical Examination” loosely as the "medical" is conducted by a question and answer interview prompted by computerised questions. A fully qualified doctor very rarely does this interview. It could be conducted by a nurse, a medical secretary, or, who knows, by someone just walking by with nothing else to do?

The company, which is being paid over £100 million a year, for at least 5 years, for this privilege, is the health care arm of ATOS.

The company is charged with getting claimants off the higher rate of benefit and into a “fit for work/able to work” category. This includes terminally ill people, I prefer to use the word people rather than claimant, who have died a couple of months after being classified as “fit for work”.

Over 70% of people who appeal the ATOS decision to withdraw their Disability Benefit win their appeal.

The appeal is funded by the British Tax Payer and not by ATOS, who still receive their payment in full, and suffer no financial penalty for their wrong assessment of the person who has gone through months of the mental and financial suffering of being on a low benefit (when you appeal a decision you are put on a low benefit until your appeal is decided), and not knowing if their appeal will be successful.

Appeals can often take months to be heard due to the increase in people appealing, and backlog of appeals due to the cut back in staff and resources to deal with the appeals.

Here is a statement, the first part of which I find laughable, from the ATOS home page:

We support the Department’s efforts to drive disability equality. Disability assessments for benefit eligibility are transformed by Atos-delivered business process outsourcing services. We are handling 1.2 million referrals a year and six million face-to-face assessments across 142 locations. 

There are claims, which have never been denied by anyone when questioned over this, that ATOS and the medical assessors receive a bonus for every person that is declared “fit to work”.

The Irony is that ATOS has been selected as one of the main sponsors of the Paralympics.

It is reported that ATOS paid a paltry £63 million for this privilege, which in reality is being paid for by the British Tax Payer, to promote the company as a benefactor for people with a Disability (if I may use the word for the context of this blog).

ATOS Worldgrid: promotes itself as a unique player delivering innovative services to the new smart energy market.

ATOS Worldline: advertises itself as using core expertise in HI-Tech Transactional Services (HTTS), as a specialist in electronic payment services, eServices, for customers, citizens and communities and services for financial markets.

• Nowhere does it mention about removing people’s benefits and forcing them into poverty or mental stress or depression. 

• Nowhere does it mention about any support, financial or otherwise, for people, communities, or organisations dealing with any Mental or Physical Health situations. 

McTaggart