A Day in the Life

So, it's finally happened. The changes which are currently being wrought in the benefits system which have caused so much unease amongst those who are ill or disabled, and which I have written about in this blog, are now going to affect me. I received a letter through the post last Friday telling me that I am going to be reassessed for the benefits I receive. Of course, Incapacity Benefit is being phased out by the government, with a new benefit, Employment and Support Allowance, replacing it. The new benefit is described in the letter as something which "helps people with an illness or disability move into work and provides people with the support they need". I will first have to fill in a "Limited Capability for Work" questionnaire, in which I will be asked to describe how my illness affects me from day to day. Later, I may be asked to attend a Work Capability Assessment, a prospect I am none too keen on given the appalling reputation of Atos, the co...

I have often said in this blog how I think the problem of stigma is gradually improving. The national anti-stigma campaign Time to Change has itself reported a reduction in discriminatory behaviour, and an improvement in the knowledge and attitudes surrounding mental ill health. However, according to a recent survey by the mental health charity, Mind, the problem of stigma and also issues with mental health services seem to be very much alive and well. In the survey people were asked to tell the charity what they thought the major issues surrounding mental ill health were. What emerged was a really quite disturbing picture of the state of both stigma and mental health services. In terms of work, the survey reported that 1 in 4 people who tell their boss that they have a mental health problem end up either being sacked or forced to leave. 6 in 10 employers say that they wouldn't take on an employee with a mental health problem...

"All art is quite useless". Oscar Wilde, The Preface to "The Picture of Dorian Gray". It seems to me that the more books I read, the more films I watch, the more paintings I see, I come to the conclusion that, as Oscar Wilde said, "all art is quite useless". Art, in all its forms, it appears, has no practical utility. Wilde remarked, then, that "the only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely". However, by saying that art was useless, I don't think Wilde meant that it is also worthless. In fact, the very opposite might be true. To me, a great work of art, whether it be a book, a film, a painting, or a poem, always has a significant power - the power to inform, provoke, make social comment, civilise and redeem. Keats wrote in his "Ode to a Grecian Urn", that "beauty is truth, truth beauty - that is all / Ye know on this earth, and all ye need to know". There has been a significant amount...

By the title of this post you may think that I've finally decided to give up blogging. But, please don't breathe your collective sigh of relief yet, for 'tis not so. No, I will carry on with my anti-stigma message and occasional forays into other subjects for the time being. So, to what does my title refer? I hear you ask. Well, after five years of working voluntarily for the Media Action Group for Mental Health, I've decided that it may be time for me to move on. As I've said in this blog, I've started looking for part-time paid work with the help of the organisation, Remploy. So that I can concentrate my efforts on this (and writing this blog, as well as attempting to co-author a book about mental health with a friend), I felt that I had to give up something. I have often spoken of how my voluntary work has been invaluable in my recovery from mental ill health, and indeed, I would recommend volunteering to anyone who is trying to recover from a mental illness...

So, my good friend Gary, at his site klahanie , has seen fit to pass on "The Versatile Blogger" award to me. There are various rules attached to accepting this ward, but being a little bit of a non-conformist, I'm not going to adhere to them. Suffice it to say that I thank Gary wholeheartedly for thinking of me (once again). Gary has also passed this award on to a number of other bloggers, all of which blog about the subject of mental ill health. Gary has done this to further raise awareness of the many issues surrounding mental illness, and to attempt to reduce the stigma which continues to problematise the lives of many. But, as this is "The Versatile Blogger" award, perhaps I'll just say that my blog does attempt to cover other subjects as well as mental ill health, the main purpose of this being to show that those with a diagnosis of mental illness are not defined by their experience of such conditions, but are rather so much more than any label can...

"A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members". Mahatma Gandhi.  Two recent TV programmes, Chanel 4's "Dispatches - Britain on the Sick", and BBC2's "Panorama - Disabled or Faking It?", revealed just how difficult it is to pass the assessment in order to get disability benefits in this country. As part of a programme to try to get people off incapacity benefit and back into employment, the coalition has contracted the French multinational company, Atos, to carry out such assessments, a contract worth £100 million a year. But, the programmes revealed that people with serious disabilities are being assessed as fit for work. In the "Dispatches" programme, an undercover doctor went to Atos Healthcare's 16-week training programme to see how those who carry out the assessments are trained.What emerged was truly disturbing. The doctor in charge at one point advised the trainees that even if a person had on...

OK, I have to admit that I was a little cynical about the London Olympic Games before they started. There was the ever-increasing cost (with some saying that the initial figure of £2.4 billion had ballooned to perhaps ten times that amount), the G4S security fiasco, and the fact that the Games was going to be so totally London-centric. But, when the opening ceremony arrived, I have to say my hardened, turgid little heart began to melt somewhat. Danny Boyle's spectacular extravaganza made me think twice about what the Games is really all about, and when one Tory politician even described it as having a political bias, that it was too left-wing, I began to warm to the whole affair. After all, anything that annoys Conservative MPs can only be a good thing, surely. Perhaps I should point out, though, that the guy who made those remarks is currently, I think, being investigated for attending a party in which Nazi garb was worn and extreme right-wing op...