Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Around half of all people claiming benefits because of illness have mental health problems. "Proof" of mental health often dificult to obtain. In fact , in the past , the intangibility of mental illness, the lack of a definitive test permitted unmarried mothers, troubled children and homosexuals to be detained in psychiatric hospitals. The lack of objective proof leaves mentally ill people vulnerable.

Now, with the openly stated aim of reducing the benefit bill, the government will employ its own assessors to decide who is worthy of help. NHS psychiatrists, who have the right to deny people liberty and to medicate them against their will, are not to be trusted when it comes to providing a diagnosis upon the requirement for the State to provide for an individual's financial support.

The welfare system is overrun with work-shy benefit cheats. The "allegedly disabled" are living it up on taxpayers' money, claiming benefits to which they are not entitled. We must reassess everyone! Weed out the scroungers! Yet claimants must complete a lengthy and personal form covering everything from toileting needs to suicidal urges. A statement is required from the claimant's doctor as well as someone who knows them well – often, in the case of psychiatric patients, their social worker or community psychiatric nurse. Fewer than half of all claims are successful.It is a fallacy that people with mental health problems do not want to work. According to a report published in 2004 by the Social Exclusion Unit, mentally ill people have the highest "want to work" rate of any disability group.But it found that fewer than four in 10 employers would consider offering a job to someone with a history of mental illness.

Any decent society should be urgently concerned with ensuring those affected by mental health problems should receive the support they need to lead full and rewarding lives. Mental health problems are real. They cannot be bullied or wished away. If support is removed, this doesn't mean support is not required. It means that as a society we have chosen to look away. SOYMB took the above mostly from here

But SOYMB knows that capitalism is not a society concerned about the well-being of its members. SOYMB has repeatedly posted evidence that poverty is a major contributor to mental health problems and to alcohol and drug mis-use. There appears no real escape. Only escapism – and that has a price. Madness and illness are the last refuge of the worker desperate to flee the nightmare of capitalism , and such desperation takes its toll on our bodily and mental health.

The acceptance of the individual into a set of satisfactory personal relationships is necessary to sustain personal stability and mental health.Within this social interaction the individual finds a place and gives to his/her life all the meaning that it requires. Because feelings are personal, we are apt to think that existence is independent, but feeling is the emotional language by which men communicate their social interdependence. But in to-days world people are becoming isolated from each other, with mental illness on the increase. The health and welfare of the individuals take second place in the battle of commercial competition to minimising costs so as to maximise profits. This why at work we suffer speed-up, pain, stress, boredom, overwork and accidents. This is why we have to work long hours, shiftwork and nightwork. This is why the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe are all polluted. This is why natural balances are upset.

The assault on so-called benefit fraud is popular with politicians. The victims of this assault are often among the more vulnerable people. It is easy to depict them as calculating, cynical scroungers when they are often simply desperate about how to survive. They are the human casualties of a social system in which people are judged by the degree of their availability for profitable exploitation.

1 comment:

aberfoyle said...

Right wing ideoligy.The right wing where i am are at present reviewing the benefit system, with one and only one thing in mind retrenchment.There are many who are on the sickness benefit and as infered by your blog they are restructuring for the purpose of work testing and fraud.

Many if not most, are termed as bypolar,others alchohol dependant.The rates of the benefits for those suffering these ailments are 30 to 40 dollars per week more than the unemployment benefit,that is 150 dollars per week.Also they recieve preferential treatment for state housing that is subsidised by the government.The rent being 45 to 50 per week for a two bedroom unit,market value 180 too 220 dollars per week.Further there is assistance for transport and free telephone connection.

What impact this review is going to have on these souls one can only presume will be negative,and will only impact on their mental condition.

All right wing governments no matter their location are opposed to supporting a welfare state, and the less taxation they can afford their party faithful no matter the social cost, they will persue.