A Day in the Life

At a meeting on 29th November, 2012, it was revealed that my local mental health resource unit, The Bennett Centre, is going to close on 21st December, 2012. The meeting was held by staff in order to attempt to reassure service users that the service they have relied on for many years will not be being completely dismantled, but simply restructured. We were told that care plans would not be being changed, but that the care co-ordinators who meet with us to arrange care plans might be replaced by other staff, due to the rearrangements which have resulted in the loss of 35 jobs. New venues within the community now might be used for service users to meet with staff, and we were told that the reason the Bennett Centre had been chosen for closure rather than other units was that such venues were more readily available within the Bennett Centre catchment area. Letters would be sent out to all service users to tell them of any changes. The overall feeling at the meeting was one of a...

How outcomes for people with schizophrenia and psychosis can be improved has been reviewed in a new report by the Schizophrenia Commission. The Commission was established by the charity Rethink Mental Illness and headed by Professor Sir Robin Murray. The report, entitled "The Abandoned Illness", states in no uncertain terms that the many who suffer with psychotic illness (some 220,000 in England alone) are being let down by, in the words of Robin Murray, "a broken and demoralised system that does not deliver the quality of treatment that is needed for people to recover". Among the many shortcomings of the system, Murray highlights psychiatric hospitals, which he states have become "frightening places where overwhelmed nurses are unable to provide basic care and support", and where "medication is prioritised at the expense of the psychological and social rehabilitation which are also necessary." Such is the condition of the hospitals that when pe...

Having now been looking for work opportunities for a while, something has finally come my way. It is a voluntary position at a local publishing company, and would seem to be exactly what I have been looking for in that it is something different to my usual work in mental health and would also make use of the qualifications and skills I have. As some of you who read this blog will know, for instance, I had a book of my poetry published back in 2004. However, there is a dark spectre hanging over me at the moment in terms of the benefits I currently receive. I was recently sent the form regarding my reassessment for Incapacity Benefit, which is being changed to Employment and Support Allowance. The fact that I am able to do voluntary work, I think, may go against me in my reassessment. The form contains such questions as, "can you lift a litre of milk using one hand?", and "can you set an alarm clock?" Hardly demanding tasks. For someone who seems t...