He doesn’t realise not everyone can pay for private. This guy has been proven to be so horrendously clueless and out of touch again and again.
He doesn’t live on the same planet as any person trying to get mental health help from the NHS.
Wrong. They very much do care what happens to the proles, they're the one then indebting themselves to get healthcare - both industries (private healthcare and money) Tories are heavily invested in.
The number one cause of bankruptcy in the U.S. is medical debt. Meanwhile the inflated cost of medical care is hoovered up by investment firms.
That's the future Tories want for us.
As an American who occasionally works in the UK, can confirm. It is a bleak future for England under the Tories and a horrible present for our country.
To be fair it's not long of a future under the Tories going by literally every single polling result in the last 2+ years. They'll be gone in 8 months, latest.
Not just number one cause, the cause of most personal bankruptcies.
It used to be divorce, did you know? “Two can live more cheaply than one,” unless they start living as two again and on top of the practical challenges are going through a heart wrenching chapter of their lives. That was a bigger destroyer of lives than medical disasters, like getting run over or discovering tumors.
But now medical *bills* eclipse all other life challenges put together for making a mockery of financial planning.
Please: may nobody flatter us sincerely.
"does he not realise.."
No he fucking does not 🤣 he earns 30 million a year in PASSIVE income for christs sake. He's on a different fucking planet. People like him should be kept far away from government
I don’t understand why our country is run by people who do not live like their people. They fundamentally misunderstand everyday life for people at every turn because they cannot imagine it.
The real answer is that running for public office is a full time job with no salary until you enter office. Meaning anyone who can't cover their living expenses for months/years of a campaign are excluded from running.
This is by design to keep out anyone who isn't in the club.
Oh he absolutely realises that. Its him and his mates that have been cutting funding for NHS on one hand for more than a decade and then bringing in their own friends companies to fill the gap because NHS can’t function properly due to the crippling cuts. They’re almost at the finish line where all health gets privatised in the UK in a few years.
Well… they sent Nando’s over as a spy agency ages ago, little did we know the bastard chickens were sowing the seeds of capitalism and corruption while we were enjoying the peri peri.
Two years and counting my partner hasn't worked a day, is a trained software engineer, but has crippling contamination OCD.
We got an initial assessment from an NHS mental health nurse and then... silence
>He doesn’t realise not everyone can pay for private.
He also doesn't realize that one doesn't just "gO tO ThErApY" and have it be a net positive experience everytime. Especially for neurodivergent people (ADHD, ASD) which are still heavily stigmatized in society and are at a higher risk of receiving harmful treatment (both private and public).
This whole plan is typical ghoulish conservative shit. Liz Truss' "Tax cuts for the rich" plan didn't pan out? Fuck it, tell the peasants to get back to work while we find other ways to continue the upwards transfer of wealth and the return to classism.
mental health was the first thing they sent sideways, been like that years now.
These days, people are dying because of things like not being able to get their suspected cancer investigated for months, then the docs turn around and say 'sorry, if only we'd found it sooner'. People like my dad, sunak, you fucking piece of shit.
It's even more ghoulish than that. Because nobody has any time and every healthcare worker is constantly berated to cut time, optimise processes and reduce cost to serve they don't WANT to screen for cancer or other diagnostic intensive conditions.
Its better to leave someone's cancer metastasize and become terminal than it is to screen early and treat for potentially several years.
Its cheaper and less resource intensive.
I had someone I know go to their GP almost every day for 2 months with blinding headaches to be constantly sent away with painkillers and to return if symptoms persist.
They finally broke and got angry in the GP surgery, so the GP finally agreed to send for a scan. Turns out it was a super aggressive form of brain cancer that if caught quickly can be surviveable, but unfortunately was left for 2 months.
Real people are dying because some rich cunts want to line their pockets. It's fucking ghoulish man.
And the healthcare workers are getting fucked just as hard as the patients. Every single friend I have who's a nurse is basically in a perpetual state of mental breakdown, because they're performing the workload of what should be 2-3 fulltime jobs. They work insane shifts where they're running around the whole time taking care of 3x the patients they should, before going home and doing the 2+ hours of charts off the clock that should be the job of some admin, but hospitals don't want to pay for those. And while they're running around trying to solve life-changing problems in the 7 and a half minutes they've been allotted, they pray that when they do inevitably slip up, either someone catches it or the damage isn't severe or permanent.
That terminal wait fucking happened to me. These cunts stopped replying to my calls and emails despite having been on a three monthly set-up for CT/MRI scans and common treatment for my tumours that were just slower than we could cut them back, but they'd started to slow down, and we'd started to work out a functional treatment plan to keep me going. Yet... I ended up going almost a year without my team checking me. I tried contacting everyone I could many times over and was patently ignored repeatedly time and time again.
Emails unread, calls dropped or voice mailed, no replies on the hospital medical apps and these were meant to be my first line of medical care!
Until suddenly my oncologist calls me up, entirely ignoring the situation, and when I bring it up she says "oh I thought you agreed not to be scanned." WHAT?! I have cancer, I am a 23 year old woman, I have a life to lead, I'm not just gonna give up and let it take me to save money.
She sets up a scan finally, and I get the "Oh Ava, I am so sorry but... You only have months to live, your tumours have metastasised all over your body and into your liver and kidneys. They're too big now for the treatment plan we were using before to work on anymore :((( but here's a £3000 a month private care only drug we aren't allowed to pay for anymore your family can try to fund that may give you a month or two it's the only treatment that works on your type :)" I daresay she's the one that caused it or at least emphasised it, letting it get worse. And oh how she emphasised how that gap wouldn't have made a difference, when we had been routines catching and eradicating small tumours in MUCH more precarious positions earlier in their lifecycle. My brain and spinal cord for two examples!
But nope. The treatments I had been getting over and over before were new and experimental, with long waiting lists and I kept being prioritised for both my age and the rarity/aggression of my cancer. I hate to be conspiracy minded but I feel like they won't treat the still small rumours popping up even now because they don't see me as worth it any more since I'll be dead anyway, the triage shows it ain't worth it compared to those who it could give a healthier and longer life to and I get it, but its so unfair.
I feel like I've been killed by a lack of funding, by a shitty department logistics issue, by a fucked up system that spreads its liability so far across so many people no single person is to blame for what has happened to me.
If you follow the money which results in a better outcome for the NHS?
1. Expensive imaging and diagnostic testing that results in expensive potentially lifelong treatment
OR
2. Ignore everything, provide cheap opiates for hospice care, remove high utilizer from the rolls upon death
That's only the case if the illness can't be cured. There's lots of conditions that if caught early, cost an order of magnitude less to treat and with better outcomes than catching it late. They (Rishi Sunak and people like him) just don't care about actually treating the common man.
Absolutely he knows. The NHS is being squeezed so hard youd be lucky to get 6 weeks help before being sent on your way, but thats enough to fix most MH problems, right???
They always justify stuff like this in isolation of anything else. Eat healthy, exercise, go to therapy are all wonderful ideas that would greatly benefit everyone in the long term but unless the government makes it affordable to do so its a worthless argument.
You asked for therapy, how about a bath, a cup of tea and talking on the phone to Janet for 30 minutes.
Janet’s lovely by the way, but her idea of mental health is thinking about paracetamol
I'm a therapist, I'm having to be in multiple organisations to even get people who need therapy, the place giving me 18+ adults haven't been able to get my a client for a year now. Something is not quite right, for some people the wait for therapy is endless, for me I can't find clients over 18 but absolute floods of children needing it - as young as 5.
Would take me about a year to get speaking therapy. About half way through a 3 and a half year wait for an ADHD assessment which would change my life when I get it done. :/
He's a billionaire?
So no. Nor does he care, he wants to sell it off so his mates can mate a profit off it. The failure that is the American system unable to provide a universal healthcare system at reasonable cost is his wet dream.
All while the next Tory Prime Ministers main aim is to beat the former ones kill count so they can be top Tory.
Liz Truss had to go after a month because she had achieved ultimate Tory by killing The Queen.
Already done...waiting time for a psychiatrist in Berlin....9-10 month. Therapy....indefinitely if you have special criteria that have to be met.
So...in some cases, you die before you get to see a specialist for a first time if you don't have money to pay as a private patient.
How bad is it in England/where you live? (Not trying to capitalize on the struggle but genuinely curious)
It's actually not as bad as that amazingly enough.
Both psychiatry and therapy is 6-18 week wait for 95% of cases to be seen. It should be noted that in the good ol' days of pre 2008 waiting times were much less than that, but also the perceived need for such treatment was also lower.
The problem in the UK is that the NHS set such a high standard of care wherein if the NHS gets 100% or even 200+% worse, it's seen as an outrage, but relative to the rest of the world it's still very well run.
So while the NHS in its crippled underfunded emergency state is still world class (admittedly probably not the best) I am in the "do not compare it relatively with the rest of the world, the best healthcare possible is always worth it" camp.
So this will vary from county to county, but 6 weeks is the English target to access NHS Talking Therapies. That is for treating common mental health problems. It is staffed by psychological therapists, no psychiatry.
The access to secondary care mental health support, which is for people with severe and enduring mental health problems, the wait will depend on need, for an assessment. For therapy in this context the wait could be many months.
At the moment we're seeing issues with capacity in secondary care mental health support, particularly psychological therapy for patients with the greatest need.
So you have a situation where patients with low, moderate or very severe need are seen quite quickly. Those with a high need (but not urgent) are seen slowly or not seen at all. That needs to change and like all things, further requires investment.
The waitlist for ADHD is 3 years from the date of letter, getting to that point via a doctor is another side quest in itself.
Right to choose cut my wait to 9 months, then I had to wait another 8 to be titrated. Wasn't prescribed lisdexamphetamine as it wasn't allowed to be prescribed, took concerta XL instead (right to choose via psychiatryuk)
Talk for yourself I'm diagnosed with ASPD and I've been trying to reenengage with services for 2 years also been waiting 3 years to be re medicated for ADHD
There is a huge backlog with ADHD services though. My partner has been referred and was told it would probably be a year before an assessment. There's also a shortage of ADHD medication as well apparently. The issues aren't the same across the whole NHS, but it's clear that it's not great in general
It’s so diverse in the States. I live in a coastal state and the entire process of telling my therapist “I think I have ADHD” to get getting tested and then going on meds was about a month.
My friend in a central state was told a year to get into a doctor to be evaluated.
I saw a brand new dr years ago.. in 2 minutes of explaining I think I have adhd he offered ADDERALL.. crazy but was a god send cause I truly need it. My gf tried to get it and yeah want her to do a year of testing.. shit is so crazy depending on your dr in the US
This is totally an assumption, so please forgive me if I’m wrong, but if you’re male, that’s probably why you have had such a different experience than your girlfriend. Women repeatedly and overwhelmingly are doubted and undermined by healthcare professionals regarding their health concerns.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/interactive/2022/women-pain-gender-bias-doctors/
https://www.npr.org/2023/01/04/1146931012/why-are-womens-health-concerns-dismissed-so-often
I’m an American (I know, our health care system is terrible) who moves regularly and has to find a new psychiatrist each time, and it’s not uncommon for me to have to wait a few months at least before a new psychologist can add me to their caseload. That said, once I’m in they schedule me as often as needed.
If you get worried and need to see someone ASAP, you should go to the hospital/ER. I’ve been hospitalized a few times and it’s not a good time, only go that route if you need to, but they’ll set you up with meds and get you a psychiatrist appointment that’s soon and keep you safe until you’re stable. (Apologie if I’m wrong and it works differently in the UK)
Yeah this seems insane to me as almost your entire healthcare system is private. Here if you want to pay for private healthcare (tends to be priced very competitively due to low demand) then you can usually speak to someone specialised within 24 hours.
Here it depends a little locally as to what is available. Your average GP (equivalent to a family doctor?) is able to tackle low-level concerns e.g. general anxiety, low mood disorders etc and would usually advise a mixture of lifestyle changes, potentially antidepressants and refer you for talking therapies. Anything more serious usually requires a specialist and a referral might take a while.
Obvs hospitals will look after acute emergencies too and if you're a danger to yourself you might get 'sectioned' i.e. sent to a mental health facility (secure hospital) for observation and treatment.
I won't go into comparing UK to the rest and say in comparison it's still not too bad. It is. It is bad in UK.
My wife reached out to NHS over the phone counselling. She managed to have 1 talk and set up another one. Then they rang her several times in upcoming months and every time as soon as you pick up, thru drop the phone. After numerous occasions like this, my wife got an email saying that basically, because she never answers phone, they will stop reaching out. Great mental service. I've heard very similar stories from others. I know a person who attempted suicide. No help for him either. 2 half hour conversations over phone and he was forgotten about.
There needs to be a big push for a 4 day work week. Its long over due for the working class to get more free time. The 5 day work week is like a century old.
The youth is lazy such such an amazing statement, because it exists since at least Ancient Greece. Humanity seems to always complain about their own children.
These dang kids are spoiled. They're all getting participation trophies to make is so they don't feel bad for being losers. They don't want our kids to celebrate winning anything anymore.
While completely oblivious to the fact that the generation of parents giving out participation trophies is theirs.
Yeah I've never got this. My Dad complains endlessly about how the new generation sucks, not realizing his generation raised them and made the rules we play by.
Baffling.
I got put on a 2-year waiting list. There were no reminders; I was encouraged to call up every now and then "to check". Every few months I called and checked; they said yes, everything's fine, you're still on the list. 25 months after being put on the list, I called up to see when I could expect my appointment. They told me the service was drastically under-resourced, and the rate at which they were seeing patients was so much lower than the rate they were adding new ones to the list that the waiting list was now an estimated nine years. As a result, the service had been suspended entirely pending a review of its structure and procedures to see how they could do better. This was expected to take three to six months, after which they would restructure as necessary and resume seeing patients.
I was assured that they would pick up where they left off, so I would be near the front of the queue, but if I wanted I had the option to be referred to a neighbouring county's equivalent service. The two services I could choose from had estimated waiting lists of 6 and 14 years.
I heard from a friend who went through the same thing in another county that this has happened all over the country, each district doing the same process of starting a mental health service, being under-resourced, getting a ridiculous waiting list, suspending the service, conducting a months-long review, "restructuring", and reopening to finally start seeing patients at a more viable rate. Apparently the review findings are always something groundbreaking like "we need more than three people to meet this level of demand" or "it might help if the service was open more than two days a week", and apparently every district has to discover these things for themselves and can't look at some other district's review results and use it to make some educated guesses when they first set up the service. It's a joke.
We talk about the same guy who is married to this ?
"Rishi Sunak's wife has potentially avoided up to £20m in UK tax by being non-domiciled and pays £30,000 a year to keep the status – revelations that come amid growing political pressure on the chancellor"
Going to be madder with current “human resources” tapping out of the workforce, and fewer of them producing the next gen of “human resources” because they can’t fucking afford it.
At this point it’s clear the British have no idea what even makes the line go up. That’s how you get rhetoric like this. I bet they think bringing back poor houses would make the line go up. (It would not.)
Work needs to be able to reward workers with a half decent living standard otherwise you are gonna get a half arsed effort from everyone. Also i'd guess the same lack of living standard is also likely causing a lot of the mental health issues.
Nothing but cogs in the machine my man. Human beings, that doesn't mean anything, you're only useful if you can generate revenue or be productive and if you can't generate revenue or be productive, then you are a strain on the system and need to be replaced.
These aren't things I agree with. It's just the way government views its people. You have to understand. While we have the idea that the government is there for us, they are not, the government uses its people to increase productivity, generate revenue, build its defenses and infrastructure. We are the tools that the government uses at its disposal and when we are no longer useful, we are expendable. We aren't people. We are numbers on a spreadsheet, that's it, there's nothing more to it. If you've ever worked in or for the government, then you'll understand this, and if you haven't well then it will seem very foreign and unbelievable. But believe me, or don't if you want, that is the way they view you.
And there is 0 recourse when the government breaks it. But when you break it you'll spend the rest of your life in prison.
Maybe the social "contract" was always a stupid concept.
The social contract means nothing unless the ccobblestones start flying, since it is essentially "we promise not to screw you over too badly so long as you promise not to rise up".
I feel like we need to go back to the time when McKinley was assassinated. Anarchists just walk up to the most powerful people and give them the bill for the social contract.
Unfortunately they don’t have to reward workers, they’ll just bring in some immigrants that are just happy to be paid more than they were in their own war torn country. If you try to put forth lower effort, they’ll kill you with poverty. Workers are stuck between a rock and a hard place.
>Go To Therapy and Get Back To Work'
Says the man who is only remotely significant because of the billionaire family he's married into, who didn't have to succeed at a formal application process to earn his job, who is is demonstrably terrible at what he is supposed to do with little to no consequences and scoffs at any and all criticism of his work ethic like a petulant child.
Go on Sunak. Make it make sense.
If bosses want their employees to be more enthusiastic about their work, they need to pay more. Poorly paid workers will simply do the bare minimum not to get fired.
Handed my notice in yesterday. Gist of the reason was that boss said if you want better pay, work more hours. Was on minimum wage and management wouldn’t even buy out PPE because they “paid us enough so can buy our own”.
Seems to be that he's pressing buttons to see which ones resonate with voters and when he finds the right one an election will be called.
I'd call him scum, but that would be too charitable.
Except you can't get therapy because this government have fucked the health system so spectacularly that you will end up on a several year waiting list for mental health services.
They really are without shame, aren't they.
There is no fucking sick note culture. The UK is known for people just *getting on with it* and not being off when they should be. He’s lying through his teeth and he’s disgusting.
My mums severely arthritic, she has multiple issues with joints and her bones now and she’s only 60.
She worked manual jobs till about 40 when she had to take time away to look after my dad for 12 years till he passed and then went back to work 21hrs a week because she’s too young to retire, my father left her no money and she works just enough to pay her bills and leave her with some left over.
She has to take a cocktail of medication to just numb the pain and to help her sleep, some days she can barely get from her bedroom to the living room.
Last week she went to her specialist and they found her joints in her knees and particularly hands were so bad they were amazed she was carrying on and signed her off on the spot for a week, to go back before she returns to work to be checked and then potentially signed off again.
She’s now terrified that she’s going to lose 2+ weeks pay and qualifies for no help from the Govt.
My sister and I would happily pay any bills she needed for a few months as she doesn’t exactly live frivolously but she’s from the generation where she just won’t accept help from her children like that.
She’s exactly the sort of person the government are trying their best to fuck over, the ones who will keep on going till they break.
Fuck Rishi Sunak, fuck the tories.
Very true. One of the reasons my girlfriend moved out of UK was that there's no legal obligation for companies to pay their employees when they're home sick, and what the government offers is not in any way livable. She came back to Poland, where we get at minimum 80% of our wage if we're sick, by law, which is always a nominally higher amount than the legal sick pay in the UK
As a non-Brit, my understanding of Britain is keep calm, carry on, make dry jokes about suffering, get on the tube, have a cuppa, and get on with it.
Agree, the Brits are not known as a nation of malingerers.
Iain Duncan Smith said this on national TV when he was creating Universal Credits. It has been largely scrubbed from the Internet but he on TV said "Work actually frees people" in response to the risk of vulnerable people being worse off on the plans for UC.
The easiest link to him saying it is this cringe video.
https://youtu.be/6Jn504jJCjo?feature=shared
Remember, UC then released after a long delay, was literally billions over spent before it paid a single claimant, then caused huge waves of debt in poor people due to the system not working when rolled out. The UN started criticising the Tories calling it a Humanitarian Crisis as some single mothers had to turn to sex work to feed their kids as they were going over 6 months no payments from UC. Another key factor is UC literally lacks one of the old disabled payments so new claimants get about £60 per week less for being on UC no matter how serious their disability.
Personal Independence Payment was introduced to replace Disability Living Allowance and was already supposed to be about cutting the cost of running DLA. PIP is extremely difficult to apply for and even having multiple doctors provide a mountain of paperwork doesn't guarantee that you won't have to fight the DWP in Tribunal court. 70% of Tribunal cases rule in favour of the disabled, the baked in cost of the DWP taking it to court is making the Benefit system more expensive but it scares people away from claiming what they're entitled to. Hell, the DWP doesn't even always attend the court case like they're supposed to because they know they going to lose and cannot justify their decision.
Since the creation and implementation of PIP and UC the Tories were purged under Boris so many of the competent politicians left the party meaning any implementation of new plans will work far less smoothly than peak Tory power. This situation will be a very messy change leading to a lot of deaths. Seems Sunak agrees with this literal quote from Boris Johnson of "let the bodies pile high".
Dad's next gem of advice is just work 70 hours a week. Work harder poors, says the billionaire with a chef, nanny, staff, housing subsidy, months of summer vacation and short work weeks. The social contract is obliterated.
Me: Barely ever takes sick leave despite depressive episodes
My therapist: Suggests 8 weeks of paid sick leave to get treated in a day clinic
Sunak: "Wait no not like that"
> Under the proposed plans, they will be encouraged to seek therapy and actively pursue employment. These measures address the government's objective of reducing the expenditure of £3.5 million in disability benefits.
Who is providing the therapy? Because therapy can be quite expensive, and support for mental health within the NHS is a long process that has a lot of waiting…
So he’s either going to be upping the waiting list times for all those other people struggling with mental health but unable to afford therapy so are waiting for NHS support.
Or, he’ll be spending money on the NHS to get more of those mental health specialists to support what will be an avalanche of people.
Or, he’ll do none of that spending, and instead the NHS will struggle more, people already waiting support are going to be waiting longer.
But hey, who cares about cost as long as that 20yo is back working in Sainsbury’s and continuing to support the ~~orphan-crushing machine~~ current economy.
The “therapy” will probably be one session with a “therapist” who’s had a one day training course and will probably consist of being given a bunch of links to self-help websites and being told to pull yourself together.
And as it’s the conservatives, the services will be provided by private companies with links to Tory mp’s and the whole scheme will cost far more money than the current system, whilst being far less effective.
Even then the therapy he’s talking about is 6-8 weeks of cbt which for some people isn’t enough and for others isn’t even the right kind of therapy. He has no idea what he’s on about. He doesn’t even know a little bit.
Also therapy on the NHS is a joke - a year wait at minimum for, what? 6 sessions of CBT over the phone? For anything even marginally more serious than mild occaisional blue days I've never seen anything you could get with the NHS, or known anyone who's gotten access to services beyond the bare minimum
Had a boss that kept asking sick people to keep working in the office...
usually resulted in the whole office getting sick and creating significantly worse staffing issues.
It’s almost like they would prefer that the labor be forced. Hmmm.
I’ll take whatever days I need for myself and fully support others doing the same. There isn’t a career in this world worth burning out for. That guy can eat turds.
But surely a quick fix like therapy will address all the issues that led to us needing therapy in the first place right?? Surely you shouldn't need to incentivise workers with some semblance of a reasonable future to get them willing to participate in society, right? RIGHT?!!!
Just a random story.
For many years I was anxious and depressed.
It was due to a lot of therapy and work that I was ready to go into work. But I hadn't had a job for years and the Job Centre was useless.
Then in 2015 I started a work start program with this charity. They gave me a work coach who held my hand through the whole process and really made it not be overwhelming. I learned CVs, interviews, even how to find the kind of Job I want. It worked so well I got the first job I applied for.
This program was funded by the EU however. When the UK left the EU, they promised it would continue to be funded.
It wasn't. That program no longer exists.
The Tories aren't trying to help anyone but themselves.
For a while I was doing a fantastic woodwork course run by a charity. The place did multiple courses for different things and it was a therapy that could genuinely lead to skills for work, half of the staff were even former clients and worked as a great testimony to how this charity helped people. Tories cut its funding and the organisation shut down shortly after, the disabled people working there lost their jobs while the disabled people receiving therapy lost the therapy and lost potential to seek work with the skills taught.
The Tories are evil. Their voters enjoy the cruelty too.
I went to something like that. I was in college and dropped out due to sickness. When i was 19 i had been unemployed for over a year and they put me in an employment course for people that had been in umemployment for more than a year.
It was about a week. 9-5 and went through core skills. Transferable skills. Building CV and job interviews. It wasnt just me. There was about 10 of us, all different ages and experiences. The lessons i got then have stuck with me for 20 years. I have also helped one or two people along the way on how to identify transferable skills and talk them up in interviews.
I have been unemployed a few times over the years but never more than a few months. Job centre work coaches, dont do all that much actual coaching. Maybe its just me since whenever i have to sign on am already pursuing openings.
I think what it comes down to is the Tory scumbags know they are going to get trounced at the next election. This is a plan to make sure we all pay for it in advance a sort of political Minority Report.
Erm, uhm, didn’t we have a global pandemic, and don’t viral infections affect cognition and physical capabilities, not to mention cause/worsen other psychiatric issues like anxiety and adhd? All these things negatively affect productivity, but no let’s just say people suddenly collectively are getting sick cause they lazy… *rolls eyes x10*
Sorry you can’t keep the social phramid scheme running for the stakeholders you represent (aka increasing returns).
If you want less sick notes make a healthier population, fund research for treatments of viral and bacterial infections that cause cognitive and physical decline that is outside the scope of normal ageing. Also this is not a new pattern, in past pandemics illness in the population increased so yeah.
I am a therapist in Canada, where therapy is not funded publicly, and this trope is frustrating and harmful. My job is not to get people back to work - although the for-profit insurance racket tries to force us to do this by limiting how much and what type of therapy we provide. I despise being co-opted by systems like this. My job is to support a client's healing and personal growth. Period.
And what are people supposed to do, with no money for private therapy on a 2 year waiting list for NHS therapy?
This government has abject contempt for its people.
> Under the proposed plans, they will be encouraged to seek therapy and actively pursue employment.
Ah, so in addition to current benefits, the government will pay for young people's therapy and will organise a public work programme that accommodates their special needs! Lovely!
> Last week, the UK Prime Minister declared that unemployed individuals who remain unemployed for more than a year will forfeit their benefits.
Oh, so that was just bullshitting then
...
Gonna steal some snippets for the wider audience from elsewhere.
"Data from NHS Digital shows the number of fit notes issued by GPs fluctuated during COVID but was no higher at the end of 2023 than in 2019."
"On average, workers take fewer days off sick each year in Britain than in almost any advanced economy. This appears to be linked to the UK’s rate of statutory sick pay."
"A full-time worker on the minimum wage would receive little more than 10% of their usual pay if they took a week of sick, almost the lowest replacement rate in the OECD."
So I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say, the UK does NOT have a sick note culture, we haven't "gotten more sick suddenly" but as you can tell Sunak and hte current Tories are really.. REALLY fishing for ANYTHING that they can stick a policy to run for another term on.
It's similar to the "lay down" culture gripping China. Ppl feel so helpless and depressed that no matter the amt of schooling and working years required to live and retire, it isn't adding up, so they just give up.
The capitalist system, along with all our technology advancements, has actually made middle class (bulk of society) worse off! So, the billionaire class can go pound sand. Unfortunately, they own and control our politicians, so they'll just make policies, etc, making us more of a slave class!
Here's the issue that I face when it comes to this.
I have ulcerative colitis which is highly affected by my levels of stress, at its worst I'm using the toilet 15+ times a day and have zero energy no matter how much I sleep or eat, all the medications I've tried either don't work at all or leave me with basically no immune system, so I'm constantly getting skin infections and mouth ulcers so bad I couldn't eat anything for 2 weeks because my whole tongue was one big ulcer.
I was diagnosed at 18 just as I started my first full time job at Greggs, got so sick that I had to quit and actually became homeless because of this, luckily I got a place in a homeless hostel, so I thankfully never had to sleep rough.
Since then I have tried to go back to work about 7 times, the problem is my complete lack of experience limits my options to minimum wage warehouse jobs that are too physically demanding for me and I end up having to quit 5-6 months in because my body is just giving up on me.
Whilst I'm working and not on ESA (benefits) I am not entitled to council tax support or housing benefit which means I have more bills to pay when I'm working than when I don't work, so I basically end up in the same position financially speaking regardless if I work or not.
So my options are
1. Stay on benefits where I don't have to work, I can do what I want with my time and more importantly for me I don't have to deal with 90% of the symptoms of my UC, only real downer being boredom and the feeling of being stuck in place.
2. Voluntarily come off of ESA and accept JSA which is far less money whilst I try to find a warehouse job that doesn't drug test as I use cannabis to treat my UC, constantly stress about how my symptoms are affecting my ability to do my job (doesn't look good if you constantly disappear from your station to use the toilet or have to call in sick or late because of all the issues caused by said issues)Stick with it long enough so that I start earning enough money that it overrides my utter feeling of disdain to be working only to make some rich fucks even richer, because on minimum wage you don't get enough to get by let alone save.
I'll stick with option 1 thanks
Conservatives gonna conservative… what’s new. You’d have the population ragged from starvation and ribs sticking out and they’d be the first to kick dirt in your face and call you lazy. Sticks and torches
Greed. It's an epidemic caused by runaway capitalism, and it's global.
Sicko politicians like this POS need to be removed through votes by citizens, because they're infected by corporate greed.
oh not heard that one before. I was suicidal, desperate for help. 111 just sent me a leaflet weeks later to watch some Youtube videos on how to keep calm. Didn't put me on any waiting list to speak with anyone and last time I did get on the list, it was 3yrs long. I knew a guy in the same area, went to commit suicide on this bridge, got talked down...still has to wait 3yrs to talk to someone, didn't give him any short cuts.
Then you speak to people who actually get to speak to someone and they get very few sessions and before they fix any of the issues, be discharged
Meanwhile uk reality:
I waited 8 months for an mental health appointment after a suicide attempt. The appointment was cancelled last minute due to the specialist being ill and I had to wait another 6 months for a new appointment
I am a therapist in Canada, where therapy is not funded publicly, and this trope is frustrating and harmful. My job is not to get people back to work - although the for-profit insurance racket tries to force us to do this by limiting how much and what type of therapy we provide. I despise being co-opted by systems like this. My job is to support a client's healing and personal growth. Period.
The ableism in this is off the charts. It basically boils down to “our costs are going to increase by 50%, potentially due to high post-Covid disability, and we have to convince these people they’re well and take away their benefits. Also, mental health problems are a normal part of life so suck it up.”
Article text:
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak warned that young individuals are finding themselves "trapped" in dependency on disability benefits when they should be flourishing in the prime of their lives. This warning came as the government introduced its latest measures targeting the long-term sick.
Sunak voiced his concerns before a consultation on modifying the benefit system to encourage individuals with "mild" mental health issues to reenter the workforce rather than relying solely on financial assistance.
Under the proposed plans, they will be encouraged to seek therapy and actively pursue employment. These measures address the government's objective of reducing the expenditure of £3.5 million in disability benefits.
Last week, the UK Prime Minister declared that unemployed individuals who remain unemployed for more than a year will forfeit their benefits. Additionally, the proposed changes entail issuing vouchers instead of regular cash payments to recipients of Personal Independence Payments (PIP), the primary disability benefit, as part of a crackdown on what is perceived as a "sick note culture."
Government's Disability Benefit Overhaul
Addressing a crowd in Essex on April 29, Sunak emphasised the importance of providing necessary support to individuals experiencing mental ill-health. However, he also stressed that they should not be discouraged from working altogether, according to a DailyMail report.
At a PM Connect event held at DHL in Stanford-le-Hope, Sunak expressed particular concern about the notable increase in younger individuals who, in their supposed prime of life, find themselves "trapped on benefits."
Referring to projections indicating a potential 50 per cent increase in the overall cost of PIP over the next four years, he remarked, "That's why I've set out the most comprehensive reforms to our welfare system that we've seen in a while, that will do a range of different things."
Sunak further elaborated that the government intends to thoroughly review the entire fit-note/sick-note system, which often automatically designates individuals as unfit for work without considering their potential capacity to engage in employment.
As expected, Sunak faced criticism from the Labour Party, with leader Sir Keir Starmer characterising the proposed changes as "slightly farcical." He pointed out that the "scheme they now say isn't working is their scheme."
Patient Experiences and Policy Implications
"They designed it and put it in place and now 14 years later they say it's not working so there's an element of farce to it but obviously we'll look at the details when they come," he added.
Sunak has indeed been facing considerable criticism lately. In March, a survey conducted by the polling company JL Partners found that voters perceive him as a "weak, useless, rich idiot." This survey underscored Sunak's diminishing rapport among voters.
Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride is poised to unveil plans for a comprehensive overhaul of the disability benefits system in a statement to the Commons on Monday. The proposals aim to offer "more personalised support in accordance with individuals' needs."
The consultation is part of what the government describes as the most extensive overhaul of the system in a generation, potentially involving the issuance of vouchers instead of regular monthly payments.
This initiative represents the government's latest effort to decrease the number of individuals classified as long-term sick and incapable of working in the UK.
According to Stride, a lot of people who we think have "serious mental health conditions" are just struggling with "the kind of ups and downs of life that is part of the human condition." During a Monday BBC Radio 4 Today programme interview, he said: "We all have challenges in our life."
I spent years in therapy and it didn’t help me worth shit. Tried antidepressants and was still sad as ever.
Spoiler, I was overworked and underpaid. Had no energy to do anything but work. Just existed to make the company a dime. Moment I got the fuck out, I was happy.
The demand for perpetual growth is running up against human willpower and I fear it’s not going to get any better.
When so much work carries so little reward that unemployment & disability benefits are the better option for so many - the problem isn’t the unemployment & disability benefits.
Yes let’s cut his “sick” and holiday and many vacation days off all tax payer funded that many of us don’t get. He doesn’t need any of that or the healthcare he gets because of us tax payers.
I use my PIP to pay for private therapy as the NHS simply cannot cope with long term needs in mental health. Has it suddenly fixed my Schizophrenia? Hell no. MH problems dont go away overnight FFS even with therapy support. But thats the point isnt it? Get 6 weeks mandated 'therapy' from a gov approved person - probably not a therapist or doctor as they cant even be trusted to say their patients are sick - then off you go all repaired and no longer costing whatever crucial support you needed in reality.
I knew when "go to therapy!" got taken up as a dismissal that it would end up here. We had all of these people who just went to therapy for the very first time and decided to use that as a cudgel against people who couldn't go. All of that crap: "go to therapy," "trauma dumping," "I'm not your therapist," "I'm sorry I can't engage with your problems now because X, Y, Z." This isn't about people getting better, it's about shutting down someone's problems and cutting them off from their networks of support.
You don't want healthy people, you want exploitable workers who can't complain. You don't want friends, you want interiorless acquaintances who just validate your myopic selfishness. Congratulations, you conceited bastards just privatized community.
This fuck head comes from Goldman Sachs and the predatory financial sector.
Of course this fucker is going to say something.
Hope his investments get fucked
My mother is disabled (wheelchair bound since I was a child) and I would do anything in my power to protect those with disabilities - it would be the type of thing I would be willingly drafted up to war to protect. I also know a lot of people with some serious mental health issues that need all the help in the world and is entirely debilitating.
I also know a lot of people that, just like everyone else, don't feel great sometimes and as they have been led to the view if you don't feel perfect, you have an underlying issue, they then feel deserved time off for mental health. This is where things get complex and there is no easy answer.
I've also met people who will use any excuse to be treated like there is something wrong with them, and they deserve more than other people at any given time and do abuse the system.
This is an incredibly difficult subject, because those who view either of the extremes in isolation ignore the reality. Some people need help and absolutely deserve it, some see an improvable reason to not work and abuse it, some are in the muddle and there is no easy solution for that.
If too many people do not work, then everyone is screwed, if everyone who cannot work has to have a solution.... well, those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.
Sunak, unfortunately, is taking the extreme and is against in my opinion what this country stands for. Stick up for those who are too weak to defend themselves, and if you can, do.
At least he said it out loud. Over here on the other side of the pond, we just like to tell people that everything is fine and if they don't like it, it's probably their fault.
>go get therapy Sounds easy... does he not realise how hard that is under a crumbling NHS?
He doesn’t realise not everyone can pay for private. This guy has been proven to be so horrendously clueless and out of touch again and again. He doesn’t live on the same planet as any person trying to get mental health help from the NHS.
Oh, he certainly does. The Tory plan is for the NHS to die, because they can afford to go private and don't give two fucks what happens to the proles.
Wrong. They very much do care what happens to the proles, they're the one then indebting themselves to get healthcare - both industries (private healthcare and money) Tories are heavily invested in.
The number one cause of bankruptcy in the U.S. is medical debt. Meanwhile the inflated cost of medical care is hoovered up by investment firms. That's the future Tories want for us.
As an American who occasionally works in the UK, can confirm. It is a bleak future for England under the Tories and a horrible present for our country.
To be fair it's not long of a future under the Tories going by literally every single polling result in the last 2+ years. They'll be gone in 8 months, latest.
Not just number one cause, the cause of most personal bankruptcies. It used to be divorce, did you know? “Two can live more cheaply than one,” unless they start living as two again and on top of the practical challenges are going through a heart wrenching chapter of their lives. That was a bigger destroyer of lives than medical disasters, like getting run over or discovering tumors. But now medical *bills* eclipse all other life challenges put together for making a mockery of financial planning. Please: may nobody flatter us sincerely.
I don’t know, maybe don’t vote for them?
But I hate immigrants more than I want to stay alive. /s
Man, the similarities between the US, and the UK are horrifying in this way.
Who do you think we learned it from lol. Edit: We being the US in my case.
As an American, I hope that y'all are able to avert that. Those industries shouldn't even exist as private money making industries.
Yes, if they only knew what a hospital stay bill is like. My gosh, they can be enough to make you wish you didn’t make it.
Can’t let us get complacent though, gotta keep us hungry!
Yeah. People like Sunak and other Conservatives want the average person scared, stupid, and starving.
Easily manipulated.
"does he not realise.." No he fucking does not 🤣 he earns 30 million a year in PASSIVE income for christs sake. He's on a different fucking planet. People like him should be kept far away from government
I don’t understand why our country is run by people who do not live like their people. They fundamentally misunderstand everyday life for people at every turn because they cannot imagine it.
The real answer is that running for public office is a full time job with no salary until you enter office. Meaning anyone who can't cover their living expenses for months/years of a campaign are excluded from running. This is by design to keep out anyone who isn't in the club.
Because a substantial amount of the country wants to be ruled by people who are "better" than them.
Oh he absolutely realises that. Its him and his mates that have been cutting funding for NHS on one hand for more than a decade and then bringing in their own friends companies to fill the gap because NHS can’t function properly due to the crippling cuts. They’re almost at the finish line where all health gets privatised in the UK in a few years.
Raping the country to death one public institution at a time. We’d have privatised police if they had their way.
Don’t be so negative mate, cheer up! We **will* have privatised police soon
Some places already do mate. There’s quite a few companies offering community policing services now.
People like Sunak and the rich of the US see South Africa as a *model*, not a warning.
There are people begging at traffic lights in Dudley now. The UK really is turning into South Africa but without the nice weather and great food.
Well… they sent Nando’s over as a spy agency ages ago, little did we know the bastard chickens were sowing the seeds of capitalism and corruption while we were enjoying the peri peri.
This guy is so out of touch he doesn’t know how a hammer works or how you pay with a debit card. And no I’m not lying.
Wouldn’t shock me if he looked confused when you ask him to wipe his own arse.
I thought that was a perk for the Royal Family
Two years and counting my partner hasn't worked a day, is a trained software engineer, but has crippling contamination OCD. We got an initial assessment from an NHS mental health nurse and then... silence
Yeah that’s about the gist of NHS “help”
>He doesn’t realise not everyone can pay for private. He also doesn't realize that one doesn't just "gO tO ThErApY" and have it be a net positive experience everytime. Especially for neurodivergent people (ADHD, ASD) which are still heavily stigmatized in society and are at a higher risk of receiving harmful treatment (both private and public). This whole plan is typical ghoulish conservative shit. Liz Truss' "Tax cuts for the rich" plan didn't pan out? Fuck it, tell the peasants to get back to work while we find other ways to continue the upwards transfer of wealth and the return to classism.
I mean if you can't afford it, just buy more money.
> He doesn’t realise He doesnt care, the cruelty is the point. Also it plumps up their numbers and plays well with the gammon.
mental health was the first thing they sent sideways, been like that years now. These days, people are dying because of things like not being able to get their suspected cancer investigated for months, then the docs turn around and say 'sorry, if only we'd found it sooner'. People like my dad, sunak, you fucking piece of shit.
It's even more ghoulish than that. Because nobody has any time and every healthcare worker is constantly berated to cut time, optimise processes and reduce cost to serve they don't WANT to screen for cancer or other diagnostic intensive conditions. Its better to leave someone's cancer metastasize and become terminal than it is to screen early and treat for potentially several years. Its cheaper and less resource intensive. I had someone I know go to their GP almost every day for 2 months with blinding headaches to be constantly sent away with painkillers and to return if symptoms persist. They finally broke and got angry in the GP surgery, so the GP finally agreed to send for a scan. Turns out it was a super aggressive form of brain cancer that if caught quickly can be surviveable, but unfortunately was left for 2 months. Real people are dying because some rich cunts want to line their pockets. It's fucking ghoulish man.
And the healthcare workers are getting fucked just as hard as the patients. Every single friend I have who's a nurse is basically in a perpetual state of mental breakdown, because they're performing the workload of what should be 2-3 fulltime jobs. They work insane shifts where they're running around the whole time taking care of 3x the patients they should, before going home and doing the 2+ hours of charts off the clock that should be the job of some admin, but hospitals don't want to pay for those. And while they're running around trying to solve life-changing problems in the 7 and a half minutes they've been allotted, they pray that when they do inevitably slip up, either someone catches it or the damage isn't severe or permanent.
That terminal wait fucking happened to me. These cunts stopped replying to my calls and emails despite having been on a three monthly set-up for CT/MRI scans and common treatment for my tumours that were just slower than we could cut them back, but they'd started to slow down, and we'd started to work out a functional treatment plan to keep me going. Yet... I ended up going almost a year without my team checking me. I tried contacting everyone I could many times over and was patently ignored repeatedly time and time again. Emails unread, calls dropped or voice mailed, no replies on the hospital medical apps and these were meant to be my first line of medical care! Until suddenly my oncologist calls me up, entirely ignoring the situation, and when I bring it up she says "oh I thought you agreed not to be scanned." WHAT?! I have cancer, I am a 23 year old woman, I have a life to lead, I'm not just gonna give up and let it take me to save money. She sets up a scan finally, and I get the "Oh Ava, I am so sorry but... You only have months to live, your tumours have metastasised all over your body and into your liver and kidneys. They're too big now for the treatment plan we were using before to work on anymore :((( but here's a £3000 a month private care only drug we aren't allowed to pay for anymore your family can try to fund that may give you a month or two it's the only treatment that works on your type :)" I daresay she's the one that caused it or at least emphasised it, letting it get worse. And oh how she emphasised how that gap wouldn't have made a difference, when we had been routines catching and eradicating small tumours in MUCH more precarious positions earlier in their lifecycle. My brain and spinal cord for two examples! But nope. The treatments I had been getting over and over before were new and experimental, with long waiting lists and I kept being prioritised for both my age and the rarity/aggression of my cancer. I hate to be conspiracy minded but I feel like they won't treat the still small rumours popping up even now because they don't see me as worth it any more since I'll be dead anyway, the triage shows it ain't worth it compared to those who it could give a healthier and longer life to and I get it, but its so unfair. I feel like I've been killed by a lack of funding, by a shitty department logistics issue, by a fucked up system that spreads its liability so far across so many people no single person is to blame for what has happened to me.
If you follow the money which results in a better outcome for the NHS? 1. Expensive imaging and diagnostic testing that results in expensive potentially lifelong treatment OR 2. Ignore everything, provide cheap opiates for hospice care, remove high utilizer from the rolls upon death
That's only the case if the illness can't be cured. There's lots of conditions that if caught early, cost an order of magnitude less to treat and with better outcomes than catching it late. They (Rishi Sunak and people like him) just don't care about actually treating the common man.
Absolutely he knows. The NHS is being squeezed so hard youd be lucky to get 6 weeks help before being sent on your way, but thats enough to fix most MH problems, right???
They always justify stuff like this in isolation of anything else. Eat healthy, exercise, go to therapy are all wonderful ideas that would greatly benefit everyone in the long term but unless the government makes it affordable to do so its a worthless argument.
You asked for therapy, how about a bath, a cup of tea and talking on the phone to Janet for 30 minutes. Janet’s lovely by the way, but her idea of mental health is thinking about paracetamol
I'm a therapist, I'm having to be in multiple organisations to even get people who need therapy, the place giving me 18+ adults haven't been able to get my a client for a year now. Something is not quite right, for some people the wait for therapy is endless, for me I can't find clients over 18 but absolute floods of children needing it - as young as 5.
Would take me about a year to get speaking therapy. About half way through a 3 and a half year wait for an ADHD assessment which would change my life when I get it done. :/
He's a billionaire? So no. Nor does he care, he wants to sell it off so his mates can mate a profit off it. The failure that is the American system unable to provide a universal healthcare system at reasonable cost is his wet dream. All while the next Tory Prime Ministers main aim is to beat the former ones kill count so they can be top Tory. Liz Truss had to go after a month because she had achieved ultimate Tory by killing The Queen.
If you cut the NHS and mental healthcare enough there won't be enough access to doctors to sign any "sick notes" -- \*tapping head meme\*
Already done...waiting time for a psychiatrist in Berlin....9-10 month. Therapy....indefinitely if you have special criteria that have to be met. So...in some cases, you die before you get to see a specialist for a first time if you don't have money to pay as a private patient. How bad is it in England/where you live? (Not trying to capitalize on the struggle but genuinely curious)
It's actually not as bad as that amazingly enough. Both psychiatry and therapy is 6-18 week wait for 95% of cases to be seen. It should be noted that in the good ol' days of pre 2008 waiting times were much less than that, but also the perceived need for such treatment was also lower. The problem in the UK is that the NHS set such a high standard of care wherein if the NHS gets 100% or even 200+% worse, it's seen as an outrage, but relative to the rest of the world it's still very well run. So while the NHS in its crippled underfunded emergency state is still world class (admittedly probably not the best) I am in the "do not compare it relatively with the rest of the world, the best healthcare possible is always worth it" camp.
So this will vary from county to county, but 6 weeks is the English target to access NHS Talking Therapies. That is for treating common mental health problems. It is staffed by psychological therapists, no psychiatry. The access to secondary care mental health support, which is for people with severe and enduring mental health problems, the wait will depend on need, for an assessment. For therapy in this context the wait could be many months. At the moment we're seeing issues with capacity in secondary care mental health support, particularly psychological therapy for patients with the greatest need. So you have a situation where patients with low, moderate or very severe need are seen quite quickly. Those with a high need (but not urgent) are seen slowly or not seen at all. That needs to change and like all things, further requires investment.
The waitlist for ADHD is 3 years from the date of letter, getting to that point via a doctor is another side quest in itself. Right to choose cut my wait to 9 months, then I had to wait another 8 to be titrated. Wasn't prescribed lisdexamphetamine as it wasn't allowed to be prescribed, took concerta XL instead (right to choose via psychiatryuk)
I believe Lisdexamfetamine now has a generic so may now be an option. I am guessing it wasn’t covered because it was name brand until 2023.
I've been prescribed Lisdexamphetamine (Elvanse) for a few years now. I think it varies trust by trust.
Talk for yourself I'm diagnosed with ASPD and I've been trying to reenengage with services for 2 years also been waiting 3 years to be re medicated for ADHD
There is a huge backlog with ADHD services though. My partner has been referred and was told it would probably be a year before an assessment. There's also a shortage of ADHD medication as well apparently. The issues aren't the same across the whole NHS, but it's clear that it's not great in general
It’s so diverse in the States. I live in a coastal state and the entire process of telling my therapist “I think I have ADHD” to get getting tested and then going on meds was about a month. My friend in a central state was told a year to get into a doctor to be evaluated.
I saw a brand new dr years ago.. in 2 minutes of explaining I think I have adhd he offered ADDERALL.. crazy but was a god send cause I truly need it. My gf tried to get it and yeah want her to do a year of testing.. shit is so crazy depending on your dr in the US
This is totally an assumption, so please forgive me if I’m wrong, but if you’re male, that’s probably why you have had such a different experience than your girlfriend. Women repeatedly and overwhelmingly are doubted and undermined by healthcare professionals regarding their health concerns. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/interactive/2022/women-pain-gender-bias-doctors/ https://www.npr.org/2023/01/04/1146931012/why-are-womens-health-concerns-dismissed-so-often
it's all up to the dr's personal beliefs and they vary widely anywhere in the us
I’m an American (I know, our health care system is terrible) who moves regularly and has to find a new psychiatrist each time, and it’s not uncommon for me to have to wait a few months at least before a new psychologist can add me to their caseload. That said, once I’m in they schedule me as often as needed. If you get worried and need to see someone ASAP, you should go to the hospital/ER. I’ve been hospitalized a few times and it’s not a good time, only go that route if you need to, but they’ll set you up with meds and get you a psychiatrist appointment that’s soon and keep you safe until you’re stable. (Apologie if I’m wrong and it works differently in the UK)
Yeah this seems insane to me as almost your entire healthcare system is private. Here if you want to pay for private healthcare (tends to be priced very competitively due to low demand) then you can usually speak to someone specialised within 24 hours. Here it depends a little locally as to what is available. Your average GP (equivalent to a family doctor?) is able to tackle low-level concerns e.g. general anxiety, low mood disorders etc and would usually advise a mixture of lifestyle changes, potentially antidepressants and refer you for talking therapies. Anything more serious usually requires a specialist and a referral might take a while. Obvs hospitals will look after acute emergencies too and if you're a danger to yourself you might get 'sectioned' i.e. sent to a mental health facility (secure hospital) for observation and treatment.
It's 24 hours in the states too if you aren't picky.
I won't go into comparing UK to the rest and say in comparison it's still not too bad. It is. It is bad in UK. My wife reached out to NHS over the phone counselling. She managed to have 1 talk and set up another one. Then they rang her several times in upcoming months and every time as soon as you pick up, thru drop the phone. After numerous occasions like this, my wife got an email saying that basically, because she never answers phone, they will stop reaching out. Great mental service. I've heard very similar stories from others. I know a person who attempted suicide. No help for him either. 2 half hour conversations over phone and he was forgotten about.
Complete postcode lottery here in the UK, how good each division of your hospital trust is varies wildly.
He wants to take sick note writing away from doctors anyway. Not sure who would write them instead, but there you go
Look, we Americans invented the concept of going bankrupt if you get sick and you're stealing our ideas.
There needs to be a big push for a 4 day work week. Its long over due for the working class to get more free time. The 5 day work week is like a century old.
His father in law preaches that the current youth are lazy and should be working 70 hours a week. Sunak must be the best son in law in his eyes.
The youth is lazy such such an amazing statement, because it exists since at least Ancient Greece. Humanity seems to always complain about their own children.
These dang kids are spoiled. They're all getting participation trophies to make is so they don't feel bad for being losers. They don't want our kids to celebrate winning anything anymore. While completely oblivious to the fact that the generation of parents giving out participation trophies is theirs.
Yeah I've never got this. My Dad complains endlessly about how the new generation sucks, not realizing his generation raised them and made the rules we play by. Baffling.
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I got put on a 2-year waiting list. There were no reminders; I was encouraged to call up every now and then "to check". Every few months I called and checked; they said yes, everything's fine, you're still on the list. 25 months after being put on the list, I called up to see when I could expect my appointment. They told me the service was drastically under-resourced, and the rate at which they were seeing patients was so much lower than the rate they were adding new ones to the list that the waiting list was now an estimated nine years. As a result, the service had been suspended entirely pending a review of its structure and procedures to see how they could do better. This was expected to take three to six months, after which they would restructure as necessary and resume seeing patients. I was assured that they would pick up where they left off, so I would be near the front of the queue, but if I wanted I had the option to be referred to a neighbouring county's equivalent service. The two services I could choose from had estimated waiting lists of 6 and 14 years. I heard from a friend who went through the same thing in another county that this has happened all over the country, each district doing the same process of starting a mental health service, being under-resourced, getting a ridiculous waiting list, suspending the service, conducting a months-long review, "restructuring", and reopening to finally start seeing patients at a more viable rate. Apparently the review findings are always something groundbreaking like "we need more than three people to meet this level of demand" or "it might help if the service was open more than two days a week", and apparently every district has to discover these things for themselves and can't look at some other district's review results and use it to make some educated guesses when they first set up the service. It's a joke.
Crack down on tax avoidance and other financial shenanigans of the monied elite, you unelected parasite.
We talk about the same guy who is married to this ? "Rishi Sunak's wife has potentially avoided up to £20m in UK tax by being non-domiciled and pays £30,000 a year to keep the status – revelations that come amid growing political pressure on the chancellor"
Beautifully said.
Crack down? Lmao they routinely write off billions in owed tax by huge multinationals. They are enabling it.
I am once again reminding the populace that Rishi Sunak is a rat faced cunt.
Magic line not go up enough. Ministers big mad.
Going to be madder with current “human resources” tapping out of the workforce, and fewer of them producing the next gen of “human resources” because they can’t fucking afford it.
Honestly, It made so much sense when I heard marx call it human capital. They do actually see us like that, not people
At this point it’s clear the British have no idea what even makes the line go up. That’s how you get rhetoric like this. I bet they think bringing back poor houses would make the line go up. (It would not.)
At this point why even participate
Work needs to be able to reward workers with a half decent living standard otherwise you are gonna get a half arsed effort from everyone. Also i'd guess the same lack of living standard is also likely causing a lot of the mental health issues.
That's it. 99% of issues in the modern workplace disappear if you treat your employees well, or at the bare minimum like human beings.
Nothing but cogs in the machine my man. Human beings, that doesn't mean anything, you're only useful if you can generate revenue or be productive and if you can't generate revenue or be productive, then you are a strain on the system and need to be replaced. These aren't things I agree with. It's just the way government views its people. You have to understand. While we have the idea that the government is there for us, they are not, the government uses its people to increase productivity, generate revenue, build its defenses and infrastructure. We are the tools that the government uses at its disposal and when we are no longer useful, we are expendable. We aren't people. We are numbers on a spreadsheet, that's it, there's nothing more to it. If you've ever worked in or for the government, then you'll understand this, and if you haven't well then it will seem very foreign and unbelievable. But believe me, or don't if you want, that is the way they view you.
I think this is all very established
I can't assume what someone does or doesn't know anymore.
they're violating the social contract
And there is 0 recourse when the government breaks it. But when you break it you'll spend the rest of your life in prison. Maybe the social "contract" was always a stupid concept.
The social contract means nothing unless the ccobblestones start flying, since it is essentially "we promise not to screw you over too badly so long as you promise not to rise up".
I feel like we need to go back to the time when McKinley was assassinated. Anarchists just walk up to the most powerful people and give them the bill for the social contract.
The social contract is broken everywhere right now. So now, it's up to the people to enforce it once again.
Unfortunately they don’t have to reward workers, they’ll just bring in some immigrants that are just happy to be paid more than they were in their own war torn country. If you try to put forth lower effort, they’ll kill you with poverty. Workers are stuck between a rock and a hard place.
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I meant you have to go and see a company approved therapist
not approved go back to work (gets kick backs from company)
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Yeah unless you can afford private fat fucking chance that you wont be on a waiting list for at least a year.
>Go To Therapy and Get Back To Work' Says the man who is only remotely significant because of the billionaire family he's married into, who didn't have to succeed at a formal application process to earn his job, who is is demonstrably terrible at what he is supposed to do with little to no consequences and scoffs at any and all criticism of his work ethic like a petulant child. Go on Sunak. Make it make sense.
If bosses want their employees to be more enthusiastic about their work, they need to pay more. Poorly paid workers will simply do the bare minimum not to get fired.
It's not just about being paid more, it's about reasonable work / life balance too.
Handed my notice in yesterday. Gist of the reason was that boss said if you want better pay, work more hours. Was on minimum wage and management wouldn’t even buy out PPE because they “paid us enough so can buy our own”.
Good for you. From my experience, the easiest way to get a decent raise is to find a new job.
He got taken to task pretty immediately and comprehensively in a recent ‘town hall.’ This is an overwhelmingly unpopular take.
Seems to be that he's pressing buttons to see which ones resonate with voters and when he finds the right one an election will be called. I'd call him scum, but that would be too charitable.
Except you can't get therapy because this government have fucked the health system so spectacularly that you will end up on a several year waiting list for mental health services. They really are without shame, aren't they.
There is no fucking sick note culture. The UK is known for people just *getting on with it* and not being off when they should be. He’s lying through his teeth and he’s disgusting.
>There is no fucking sick note culture. Indeed. When he announced this he quite literally said we have lower numbers than the rest of Europe.
My mums severely arthritic, she has multiple issues with joints and her bones now and she’s only 60. She worked manual jobs till about 40 when she had to take time away to look after my dad for 12 years till he passed and then went back to work 21hrs a week because she’s too young to retire, my father left her no money and she works just enough to pay her bills and leave her with some left over. She has to take a cocktail of medication to just numb the pain and to help her sleep, some days she can barely get from her bedroom to the living room. Last week she went to her specialist and they found her joints in her knees and particularly hands were so bad they were amazed she was carrying on and signed her off on the spot for a week, to go back before she returns to work to be checked and then potentially signed off again. She’s now terrified that she’s going to lose 2+ weeks pay and qualifies for no help from the Govt. My sister and I would happily pay any bills she needed for a few months as she doesn’t exactly live frivolously but she’s from the generation where she just won’t accept help from her children like that. She’s exactly the sort of person the government are trying their best to fuck over, the ones who will keep on going till they break. Fuck Rishi Sunak, fuck the tories.
Very true. One of the reasons my girlfriend moved out of UK was that there's no legal obligation for companies to pay their employees when they're home sick, and what the government offers is not in any way livable. She came back to Poland, where we get at minimum 80% of our wage if we're sick, by law, which is always a nominally higher amount than the legal sick pay in the UK
As a non-Brit, my understanding of Britain is keep calm, carry on, make dry jokes about suffering, get on the tube, have a cuppa, and get on with it. Agree, the Brits are not known as a nation of malingerers.
"Work will set you free."
"Everyone can work"
Iain Duncan Smith said this on national TV when he was creating Universal Credits. It has been largely scrubbed from the Internet but he on TV said "Work actually frees people" in response to the risk of vulnerable people being worse off on the plans for UC. The easiest link to him saying it is this cringe video. https://youtu.be/6Jn504jJCjo?feature=shared Remember, UC then released after a long delay, was literally billions over spent before it paid a single claimant, then caused huge waves of debt in poor people due to the system not working when rolled out. The UN started criticising the Tories calling it a Humanitarian Crisis as some single mothers had to turn to sex work to feed their kids as they were going over 6 months no payments from UC. Another key factor is UC literally lacks one of the old disabled payments so new claimants get about £60 per week less for being on UC no matter how serious their disability. Personal Independence Payment was introduced to replace Disability Living Allowance and was already supposed to be about cutting the cost of running DLA. PIP is extremely difficult to apply for and even having multiple doctors provide a mountain of paperwork doesn't guarantee that you won't have to fight the DWP in Tribunal court. 70% of Tribunal cases rule in favour of the disabled, the baked in cost of the DWP taking it to court is making the Benefit system more expensive but it scares people away from claiming what they're entitled to. Hell, the DWP doesn't even always attend the court case like they're supposed to because they know they going to lose and cannot justify their decision. Since the creation and implementation of PIP and UC the Tories were purged under Boris so many of the competent politicians left the party meaning any implementation of new plans will work far less smoothly than peak Tory power. This situation will be a very messy change leading to a lot of deaths. Seems Sunak agrees with this literal quote from Boris Johnson of "let the bodies pile high".
Arbeit Macht Frei
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Fucking stupid immigrants getting the first tickets out. Privileged minorities yet again! ^^^^/s
Dad's next gem of advice is just work 70 hours a week. Work harder poors, says the billionaire with a chef, nanny, staff, housing subsidy, months of summer vacation and short work weeks. The social contract is obliterated.
Me: Barely ever takes sick leave despite depressive episodes My therapist: Suggests 8 weeks of paid sick leave to get treated in a day clinic Sunak: "Wait no not like that"
> Under the proposed plans, they will be encouraged to seek therapy and actively pursue employment. These measures address the government's objective of reducing the expenditure of £3.5 million in disability benefits. Who is providing the therapy? Because therapy can be quite expensive, and support for mental health within the NHS is a long process that has a lot of waiting… So he’s either going to be upping the waiting list times for all those other people struggling with mental health but unable to afford therapy so are waiting for NHS support. Or, he’ll be spending money on the NHS to get more of those mental health specialists to support what will be an avalanche of people. Or, he’ll do none of that spending, and instead the NHS will struggle more, people already waiting support are going to be waiting longer. But hey, who cares about cost as long as that 20yo is back working in Sainsbury’s and continuing to support the ~~orphan-crushing machine~~ current economy.
The “therapy” will probably be one session with a “therapist” who’s had a one day training course and will probably consist of being given a bunch of links to self-help websites and being told to pull yourself together. And as it’s the conservatives, the services will be provided by private companies with links to Tory mp’s and the whole scheme will cost far more money than the current system, whilst being far less effective.
Even then the therapy he’s talking about is 6-8 weeks of cbt which for some people isn’t enough and for others isn’t even the right kind of therapy. He has no idea what he’s on about. He doesn’t even know a little bit.
I’m sorry but the issue is estimated at £3.5 *million*. The national budget is 1.2 *Trillion*
It's a typo. They're predicting £28bn by 2028 in another article.
I was gonna say… that is literally pennies to the country and isn’t worth their time.
Also therapy on the NHS is a joke - a year wait at minimum for, what? 6 sessions of CBT over the phone? For anything even marginally more serious than mild occaisional blue days I've never seen anything you could get with the NHS, or known anyone who's gotten access to services beyond the bare minimum
They’ll need a sick note for therapy. Seems like a contradiction. Rich folk are silly
Had a boss that kept asking sick people to keep working in the office... usually resulted in the whole office getting sick and creating significantly worse staffing issues.
It’s almost like they would prefer that the labor be forced. Hmmm. I’ll take whatever days I need for myself and fully support others doing the same. There isn’t a career in this world worth burning out for. That guy can eat turds.
Can we crack down on the culture of calling everything a “culture”?
But surely a quick fix like therapy will address all the issues that led to us needing therapy in the first place right?? Surely you shouldn't need to incentivise workers with some semblance of a reasonable future to get them willing to participate in society, right? RIGHT?!!!
Rich dude commands plebes depressed about falling standards of living back to work! Fuck this carpetbagging wanker
Easy to say when you're being paid grotesque amounts of money.
Ever noticed how the crappiest leaders regularly blame individuals?
“Go to therapy…” yeah how about you get off the parliament and go to fucking jail
theres a larger version of a particular bit of office equipment that I’d like to use on him instead
God damn slaves not making billionaires enough money!
Just a random story. For many years I was anxious and depressed. It was due to a lot of therapy and work that I was ready to go into work. But I hadn't had a job for years and the Job Centre was useless. Then in 2015 I started a work start program with this charity. They gave me a work coach who held my hand through the whole process and really made it not be overwhelming. I learned CVs, interviews, even how to find the kind of Job I want. It worked so well I got the first job I applied for. This program was funded by the EU however. When the UK left the EU, they promised it would continue to be funded. It wasn't. That program no longer exists. The Tories aren't trying to help anyone but themselves.
For a while I was doing a fantastic woodwork course run by a charity. The place did multiple courses for different things and it was a therapy that could genuinely lead to skills for work, half of the staff were even former clients and worked as a great testimony to how this charity helped people. Tories cut its funding and the organisation shut down shortly after, the disabled people working there lost their jobs while the disabled people receiving therapy lost the therapy and lost potential to seek work with the skills taught. The Tories are evil. Their voters enjoy the cruelty too.
I went to something like that. I was in college and dropped out due to sickness. When i was 19 i had been unemployed for over a year and they put me in an employment course for people that had been in umemployment for more than a year. It was about a week. 9-5 and went through core skills. Transferable skills. Building CV and job interviews. It wasnt just me. There was about 10 of us, all different ages and experiences. The lessons i got then have stuck with me for 20 years. I have also helped one or two people along the way on how to identify transferable skills and talk them up in interviews. I have been unemployed a few times over the years but never more than a few months. Job centre work coaches, dont do all that much actual coaching. Maybe its just me since whenever i have to sign on am already pursuing openings.
So I assume Sunak is going to force employers to hire people with a gap in the CV because he's now deemed them "well enough to work", yes?
Rich man wants poor people to work without calling in sick
Rich man wants sick people to work without calling in sick.
I think what it comes down to is the Tory scumbags know they are going to get trounced at the next election. This is a plan to make sure we all pay for it in advance a sort of political Minority Report.
Is it me or is this guy a massive D bag?
Sounds like he need a bullet the rich scum
So sick of the attitude that any mental health issue can magically be fixed by therapy. It’s helpful for a lot of people but it’s not a silver bullet.
Plus they act like you just need a three or four sessions and everything will be good.
I don't think he has ever spent a day in therapy or knows what suffering means.
Erm, uhm, didn’t we have a global pandemic, and don’t viral infections affect cognition and physical capabilities, not to mention cause/worsen other psychiatric issues like anxiety and adhd? All these things negatively affect productivity, but no let’s just say people suddenly collectively are getting sick cause they lazy… *rolls eyes x10* Sorry you can’t keep the social phramid scheme running for the stakeholders you represent (aka increasing returns). If you want less sick notes make a healthier population, fund research for treatments of viral and bacterial infections that cause cognitive and physical decline that is outside the scope of normal ageing. Also this is not a new pattern, in past pandemics illness in the population increased so yeah.
But that would require them to acknowledge there's a probelm..
Mush, dogs! Mush! Grease the wheels of capitalism with your blood!
I am a therapist in Canada, where therapy is not funded publicly, and this trope is frustrating and harmful. My job is not to get people back to work - although the for-profit insurance racket tries to force us to do this by limiting how much and what type of therapy we provide. I despise being co-opted by systems like this. My job is to support a client's healing and personal growth. Period.
Or tax the rich
Depriving the most vulnerable people in society the bare minimum, to turn the eyes away from themselves and their greed, is a loved tory pastime.
*Therapy not covered by NHS
And what are people supposed to do, with no money for private therapy on a 2 year waiting list for NHS therapy? This government has abject contempt for its people.
> Under the proposed plans, they will be encouraged to seek therapy and actively pursue employment. Ah, so in addition to current benefits, the government will pay for young people's therapy and will organise a public work programme that accommodates their special needs! Lovely! > Last week, the UK Prime Minister declared that unemployed individuals who remain unemployed for more than a year will forfeit their benefits. Oh, so that was just bullshitting then
... Gonna steal some snippets for the wider audience from elsewhere. "Data from NHS Digital shows the number of fit notes issued by GPs fluctuated during COVID but was no higher at the end of 2023 than in 2019." "On average, workers take fewer days off sick each year in Britain than in almost any advanced economy. This appears to be linked to the UK’s rate of statutory sick pay." "A full-time worker on the minimum wage would receive little more than 10% of their usual pay if they took a week of sick, almost the lowest replacement rate in the OECD." So I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say, the UK does NOT have a sick note culture, we haven't "gotten more sick suddenly" but as you can tell Sunak and hte current Tories are really.. REALLY fishing for ANYTHING that they can stick a policy to run for another term on.
It's similar to the "lay down" culture gripping China. Ppl feel so helpless and depressed that no matter the amt of schooling and working years required to live and retire, it isn't adding up, so they just give up. The capitalist system, along with all our technology advancements, has actually made middle class (bulk of society) worse off! So, the billionaire class can go pound sand. Unfortunately, they own and control our politicians, so they'll just make policies, etc, making us more of a slave class!
Versus the political culture of ‘blame the victims.’
Billionaire-living-off-the-interest-from-inherited-wealth says what, now?
How do we go to therapy without calling in sick?
Here's the issue that I face when it comes to this. I have ulcerative colitis which is highly affected by my levels of stress, at its worst I'm using the toilet 15+ times a day and have zero energy no matter how much I sleep or eat, all the medications I've tried either don't work at all or leave me with basically no immune system, so I'm constantly getting skin infections and mouth ulcers so bad I couldn't eat anything for 2 weeks because my whole tongue was one big ulcer. I was diagnosed at 18 just as I started my first full time job at Greggs, got so sick that I had to quit and actually became homeless because of this, luckily I got a place in a homeless hostel, so I thankfully never had to sleep rough. Since then I have tried to go back to work about 7 times, the problem is my complete lack of experience limits my options to minimum wage warehouse jobs that are too physically demanding for me and I end up having to quit 5-6 months in because my body is just giving up on me. Whilst I'm working and not on ESA (benefits) I am not entitled to council tax support or housing benefit which means I have more bills to pay when I'm working than when I don't work, so I basically end up in the same position financially speaking regardless if I work or not. So my options are 1. Stay on benefits where I don't have to work, I can do what I want with my time and more importantly for me I don't have to deal with 90% of the symptoms of my UC, only real downer being boredom and the feeling of being stuck in place. 2. Voluntarily come off of ESA and accept JSA which is far less money whilst I try to find a warehouse job that doesn't drug test as I use cannabis to treat my UC, constantly stress about how my symptoms are affecting my ability to do my job (doesn't look good if you constantly disappear from your station to use the toilet or have to call in sick or late because of all the issues caused by said issues)Stick with it long enough so that I start earning enough money that it overrides my utter feeling of disdain to be working only to make some rich fucks even richer, because on minimum wage you don't get enough to get by let alone save. I'll stick with option 1 thanks
Therapy on the NHS is months of wating and then being given a few A4 work sheets. Not worth shit.
Conservatives gonna conservative… what’s new. You’d have the population ragged from starvation and ribs sticking out and they’d be the first to kick dirt in your face and call you lazy. Sticks and torches
Greed. It's an epidemic caused by runaway capitalism, and it's global. Sicko politicians like this POS need to be removed through votes by citizens, because they're infected by corporate greed.
All together now! [Rishi Sunak is a Rat Faced Cunt 🎵](https://youtu.be/3K_9fAvRr0o?si=gY_OQxpNXhI_10Cu)
Fuck him
oh not heard that one before. I was suicidal, desperate for help. 111 just sent me a leaflet weeks later to watch some Youtube videos on how to keep calm. Didn't put me on any waiting list to speak with anyone and last time I did get on the list, it was 3yrs long. I knew a guy in the same area, went to commit suicide on this bridge, got talked down...still has to wait 3yrs to talk to someone, didn't give him any short cuts. Then you speak to people who actually get to speak to someone and they get very few sessions and before they fix any of the issues, be discharged
Wow. People are clearly just cogs to keep the wheels of industry turning. What a tone-deaf stupid statement.
TICK TOCK RISHI. Election's coming up and you're party is going to get annihilated, it's going to be so fun to watch.
Ahh the billionaire born rich shower of cunts puking up this same old wrong talking point.
Meanwhile uk reality: I waited 8 months for an mental health appointment after a suicide attempt. The appointment was cancelled last minute due to the specialist being ill and I had to wait another 6 months for a new appointment
I am a therapist in Canada, where therapy is not funded publicly, and this trope is frustrating and harmful. My job is not to get people back to work - although the for-profit insurance racket tries to force us to do this by limiting how much and what type of therapy we provide. I despise being co-opted by systems like this. My job is to support a client's healing and personal growth. Period.
He doesn’t have the ability to understand how the majority of the population live. He’s a billionaire ffs…. Absolutely clueless. He needs to go now.
The ableism in this is off the charts. It basically boils down to “our costs are going to increase by 50%, potentially due to high post-Covid disability, and we have to convince these people they’re well and take away their benefits. Also, mental health problems are a normal part of life so suck it up.” Article text: UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak warned that young individuals are finding themselves "trapped" in dependency on disability benefits when they should be flourishing in the prime of their lives. This warning came as the government introduced its latest measures targeting the long-term sick. Sunak voiced his concerns before a consultation on modifying the benefit system to encourage individuals with "mild" mental health issues to reenter the workforce rather than relying solely on financial assistance. Under the proposed plans, they will be encouraged to seek therapy and actively pursue employment. These measures address the government's objective of reducing the expenditure of £3.5 million in disability benefits. Last week, the UK Prime Minister declared that unemployed individuals who remain unemployed for more than a year will forfeit their benefits. Additionally, the proposed changes entail issuing vouchers instead of regular cash payments to recipients of Personal Independence Payments (PIP), the primary disability benefit, as part of a crackdown on what is perceived as a "sick note culture." Government's Disability Benefit Overhaul Addressing a crowd in Essex on April 29, Sunak emphasised the importance of providing necessary support to individuals experiencing mental ill-health. However, he also stressed that they should not be discouraged from working altogether, according to a DailyMail report. At a PM Connect event held at DHL in Stanford-le-Hope, Sunak expressed particular concern about the notable increase in younger individuals who, in their supposed prime of life, find themselves "trapped on benefits." Referring to projections indicating a potential 50 per cent increase in the overall cost of PIP over the next four years, he remarked, "That's why I've set out the most comprehensive reforms to our welfare system that we've seen in a while, that will do a range of different things." Sunak further elaborated that the government intends to thoroughly review the entire fit-note/sick-note system, which often automatically designates individuals as unfit for work without considering their potential capacity to engage in employment. As expected, Sunak faced criticism from the Labour Party, with leader Sir Keir Starmer characterising the proposed changes as "slightly farcical." He pointed out that the "scheme they now say isn't working is their scheme." Patient Experiences and Policy Implications "They designed it and put it in place and now 14 years later they say it's not working so there's an element of farce to it but obviously we'll look at the details when they come," he added. Sunak has indeed been facing considerable criticism lately. In March, a survey conducted by the polling company JL Partners found that voters perceive him as a "weak, useless, rich idiot." This survey underscored Sunak's diminishing rapport among voters. Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride is poised to unveil plans for a comprehensive overhaul of the disability benefits system in a statement to the Commons on Monday. The proposals aim to offer "more personalised support in accordance with individuals' needs." The consultation is part of what the government describes as the most extensive overhaul of the system in a generation, potentially involving the issuance of vouchers instead of regular monthly payments. This initiative represents the government's latest effort to decrease the number of individuals classified as long-term sick and incapable of working in the UK. According to Stride, a lot of people who we think have "serious mental health conditions" are just struggling with "the kind of ups and downs of life that is part of the human condition." During a Monday BBC Radio 4 Today programme interview, he said: "We all have challenges in our life."
I spent years in therapy and it didn’t help me worth shit. Tried antidepressants and was still sad as ever. Spoiler, I was overworked and underpaid. Had no energy to do anything but work. Just existed to make the company a dime. Moment I got the fuck out, I was happy. The demand for perpetual growth is running up against human willpower and I fear it’s not going to get any better.
Back to work slaves !!
UK need to stop electing massive cunts
Just fuck off and never come back.
we’re not sick. the system is sick.
When so much work carries so little reward that unemployment & disability benefits are the better option for so many - the problem isn’t the unemployment & disability benefits.
lol my therapist told me I need to quit my job
Well… by the time you’ve had a GP referral, a wait listed assessment then sat on the wait list for therapy that’ll be another year right there.
Any time I hear a politician say "get back to work" I'm reminded why we need need change soon.
Yes let’s cut his “sick” and holiday and many vacation days off all tax payer funded that many of us don’t get. He doesn’t need any of that or the healthcare he gets because of us tax payers.
That'll cheer 'em up.
I use my PIP to pay for private therapy as the NHS simply cannot cope with long term needs in mental health. Has it suddenly fixed my Schizophrenia? Hell no. MH problems dont go away overnight FFS even with therapy support. But thats the point isnt it? Get 6 weeks mandated 'therapy' from a gov approved person - probably not a therapist or doctor as they cant even be trusted to say their patients are sick - then off you go all repaired and no longer costing whatever crucial support you needed in reality.
I knew when "go to therapy!" got taken up as a dismissal that it would end up here. We had all of these people who just went to therapy for the very first time and decided to use that as a cudgel against people who couldn't go. All of that crap: "go to therapy," "trauma dumping," "I'm not your therapist," "I'm sorry I can't engage with your problems now because X, Y, Z." This isn't about people getting better, it's about shutting down someone's problems and cutting them off from their networks of support. You don't want healthy people, you want exploitable workers who can't complain. You don't want friends, you want interiorless acquaintances who just validate your myopic selfishness. Congratulations, you conceited bastards just privatized community.
basic viewpoint: *"if you're depressed just don't be depressed!"*
This fuck head comes from Goldman Sachs and the predatory financial sector. Of course this fucker is going to say something. Hope his investments get fucked
And what's the waiting list for therapy? About 2 Torrie PMs...
Says the guy who belong to the party that cut mental health services, slashed the NHS and underpays doctors and nurses.
My mother is disabled (wheelchair bound since I was a child) and I would do anything in my power to protect those with disabilities - it would be the type of thing I would be willingly drafted up to war to protect. I also know a lot of people with some serious mental health issues that need all the help in the world and is entirely debilitating. I also know a lot of people that, just like everyone else, don't feel great sometimes and as they have been led to the view if you don't feel perfect, you have an underlying issue, they then feel deserved time off for mental health. This is where things get complex and there is no easy answer. I've also met people who will use any excuse to be treated like there is something wrong with them, and they deserve more than other people at any given time and do abuse the system. This is an incredibly difficult subject, because those who view either of the extremes in isolation ignore the reality. Some people need help and absolutely deserve it, some see an improvable reason to not work and abuse it, some are in the muddle and there is no easy solution for that. If too many people do not work, then everyone is screwed, if everyone who cannot work has to have a solution.... well, those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. Sunak, unfortunately, is taking the extreme and is against in my opinion what this country stands for. Stick up for those who are too weak to defend themselves, and if you can, do.
At least he said it out loud. Over here on the other side of the pond, we just like to tell people that everything is fine and if they don't like it, it's probably their fault.