Iain Duncan Smith’s Work Programme is STOPPING people with mental health issues getting jobs
A survey by mental health charity Mind has found that a whopping 83% of people who lost their jobs die to mental illness got worse on the scheme
Samaritans offers listening ear over Christmas
More than 45% of men who responded to a survey* by Samaritans said they felt more worried at Christmas than other times of the year.
The findings come with a reminder that volunteers from the charity’s 201 branches will be available round the clock over the festive period, for anyone who needs to talk.
The online survey found that of the male respondents:
Almost half (48%) feel sad or depressed at Christmas time
45% of men feel that others expect them to be happy at Christmas when they are not
More than a third (37%) of men admitted to feeling lonely at Christmas
30% of men felt stressed or anxious at Christmas time
‘Depression and Christmas just don’t go’
On the day many people will be waking up to the prospect of a fortnight at home, blogger Charlotte Walker shares how she plans to take care of her mental health during the festive season.
I have often found Christmas difficult. This year I’m recovering from a mental health crisis which makes seasonal planning particularly challenging. It’s common to feel under pressure to create a magical Christmas but if you are already stressed, anxious or depressed, that pressure can be magnified.
Mentally-ill teenagers no longer to be held in cells
Teenagers experiencing mental health problems will no longer be detained in police cells as a “place of safety”.
Home Secretary Theresa May will announce later an overhaul of mental health laws in England and Wales.
The government review is also set to recommend adults should only be kept in a police cell as a place of safety in exceptional circumstances.
Press Release – Manchester Users Network
Criminal Treatment, is how many Mental Health Stakeholders describe the way people who suffer with Severe & Enduring Mental illness are being sent to Prison and are relying on food banks and are homeless, leading to suicide and other premature death, especially in Manchester, after the closure of the Psychiatric Hospital in Central Manchester “Edale”, as Manchester Mental Health & Social Care Trust are still in debt of £350 000 to Central NHS Manchester Foundation Trust.
£12m boost to get mental health patients back to work
E£12m boost to get mental health patients back to workmployment advisers and GPs will also receive training to identify mental health issues and recognise the role of work in improving mental health.
“Forcing people to engage in these activities, and cutting their benefits if they struggle to do so, is inappropriate and counter-productive.
The government’s back-to-work schemes are ineffective and damaging for people with mental health problems, according to campaigners.
The charity Mind says unemployed people with mental health problems should be moved from mainstream programmes onto a specialist scheme.
“ARBEIT MACHT FREI” ‘Work Makes You Free’ Alan Hartman 22nd Nov 2014
“ARBEIT MACHT FREI” ‘Work Makes You Free’ Alan Hartman 22nd Nov 2014
Just being more open to the topic of mental health can make a significant impact on young people.
Just being more open to the topic of mental health can make a significant impact on young people.
The number of young people experiencing anxiety and depression has increased by 70% in the past 25 years. It is estimated that 45,000 people under the age of 16 experience a mental health problem. And given that over half of adults with a mental illness are diagnosed before the age of 15, teachers can play a vital role in de-stigmatising mental health for young people.
One young person and a teacher explain their relationship with mental illness, and discuss what schools can do to help.
‘Can Openers’ By: Mel Jones a Manchester Social Worker working in Mental Health
Those of us who have been campaigning over the last few years to save public services from government cuts and austerity have been known to say, only half jokingly, that when the Tories are done, there will be “nothing left”. But this isn’t true. Tory austerity measures are a full on ideological assault. Their economic policy masks a concerted attempt to demonise the poorest and encourage people to think that the unemployed, the ill, the disabled, immigrants, asylum seekers and the old aren’t “deserving”. Thus the future is not one without public services. It is one where minimal services are delivered, by privatised corporations, to those who are deemed worthy.
