Mental health charity Mind has today revealed that a high proportion of people with mental health problems are being made more unwell by the benefits system. In particular, the process of being ‘sanctioned’ – having financial support cut or stopped altogether – is worsening people’s mental health.
Mental health charity Mind has today revealed that a high proportion of people with mental health problems are being made more unwell by the benefits system. In particular, the process of being ‘sanctioned’ – having financial support cut or stopped altogether – is worsening people’s mental health.
The World Health Organization has estimated that mental or neurological disorders will affect one in four people at some point in their lives. In the U.K., one charity says this proportion is far higher.
Five years ago the United Service Users Committee, or USUC, fought a massive campaign against cuts to mental health wellbeing drop-ins by Salford City Council and the former City Mayor, Ian Stewart.
The Mental Patients Union (MPU), in the early 1970s, could probably be seen as the first service user involvement movement. Founder member Andrew Roberts described the Union’s genesis:
An initiative aimed at tackling the growing number of pupils who suffer from mental health problems is being rolled out to 40 schools across a Yorkshire city.
An initiative aimed at tackling the growing number of pupils who suffer from mental health problems is being rolled out to 40 schools across a Yorkshire city.
One of the outsourcing giants paid to assess disabled people for their eligibility for benefits appears to have admitted that it is standard practice – approved by the government – to ask claimants with mental health conditions why they failed to take their own lives.
