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The mental toll of disability hate crime
Posted Thursday 12 August 2010
As the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) continues its inquiry into disability-related harrassment this summer, David Stocks from RADAR shares his personal experience of the devastating consequences hate crime can have on mental health.
Find out what you can do.
To understand how far-reaching the effects of hate crime can be I will first pose the question: what is hate crime? Is it a crime on someone who the perpetrator hates?
The answer to that second question may well be yes, but it doesn’t address why the victim is hated or the reason the perpetrator feels the need to target that person in a vindictive way.
I was bullied at school, not an unusual story I am sure you say. However mine wasn’t physical bullying, it was verbal bullying. I was shy and withdrawn as a child and because of this I was seen as different. I was taunted with chants by most of the school, such as “they are going to take him away” or “the white van is coming”.
This, although I didn’t realize it at the time, was a form of hate crime. I was singled out and my only crime was that of being different. Luckily for me I was strong enough to stop any physical bullying, but the verbal bullying had its effect.
Disability hate crime exists purely because the victim is perceived as being different from the norm or the status quo. Rather than embracing and celebrating that difference, it is targeted by ignorant people, with long lasting and hurtful results.
In my adult life I have developed a long term bi-polar mental health condition. My insecurities come to a head in the massive mood dips I experience as part of the cycles of this condition. These insecurities may well root back to my childhood and the verbal abuse I suffered at school.
Now that I have a mental health condition, I remain the target of the ignorant. I am still considered by many as mad, not quite right in the head. While presenting many barriers in my life, it hasn’t stopped me being successful. I have published three books and I am currently finishing my fourth, with a further two books in the pipeline. I have had a successful IT career. I have spoken in Parliament and at Party conferences. I have coached tennis and won many trophies. I have appeared in the national press, on the radio and TV. Not bad for someone they call mad.
Disability hate crime has to be stopped. It is targeting brilliant people just trying to get on with their lives. It can have a profound effect on their mental health. Yes, hate crime has it physical scars, but it is the mental ones that can have most effect. Mental wounds are hard to dress and take a long time to heal.
Let’s stop disability hate crime now. Through the empowerment and leadership work I do with RADAR, I help people with Injury, Ill Health or Disability (IID) to achieve their ambitions; doing things differently. Now is the time to show the world what we can do and take more action to stop other people’s lives being irreparably damaged by disability hate crime. There is no excuse for disability hate crime, together we can stamp it out!
David Stocks, Empowerment Manager, RADAR
Mind is responding to the EHRC’s inquiry – but we need people to share their experiences directly with the EHRC so the voices of people with experience of mental distress are heard by decision-makers. You can respond to the Inquiry here before 10 September or share you story with Mind directly by contacting action@mind.org.uk.
31 Comments
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Divid is very brave Thank you David.
I have recently been at an enquiry meeting held in Newcastle. I only got a chance to generalise around hate crime.
I have no doub't I am being victimised by members of a service provider I have already had an out of court settlement yet the victimisation continues over five years on made worse by their lnon action against anti social kids next door, I do have a part time Advocate trying to help but when you are up against a service provider you have very little chance of success in the meantime my health is deteriating. I have lot's of photographic evidence and other items. I need a long chat with someone who knows right from wrong.
Kind Regards
Paul Davidson www.odesofsurvival.co.uk
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A very interesting, thought provoking and inspiring article by David that rang a lot of bells with me. I too have a diagnosis of Bipolar I and have lived with this since the age of 25 - mind you for the first few years I was on a cocktail of medication, given ECT and told I had a Mixed Affective Disorder (spells MAD doesn't it!). I am now 54, have been happily married for 26 years having met my husband in a psychiatric ward. I have been fortunate to avoid hospitalisation for over 20 years now. Yes, I understand completely where David is coming from with his eloquent portrayal of hate crime. I too was considered different as a child and excluded by my peers for reasons that I never really understood until I became an adult.
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This is all true, and I'm very sorry that anyone is subjected to this kind of treatment for any reason. So why isn't Mind campaigning against it rather than just explaining why it's a bad thing? Day in day out people who can't work due to health problems are vilified and treated as scum by the press and members of the Government, and it's sickening and terrifying. Where is Mind with some support for us?
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Thank you for your question Jan. Mind has been actively campaigning on hate crime since 2007, as part of our Another assault campaign (www.mind.org.uk/campaigns_and_issues/current_campaigns/another_assault/ ).
We have been lobbying the Government and criminal justice agencies to recognise that people with mental health problems experience shockingly high levels of crime and victimisation in the community and to take much-needed action to ensure victims and witnesses are granted equal access to justice. Since we started campaigning on this issue there have been some important steps forward - last year the Government launched a Hate Crime Action Plan, while this year saw the launch of new national training and guidance for police officers on mental health, as well as guidance for prosecutors on supporting victims and witnesses with mental health problems within the court system.
But there is still more to do, which is why Mind is engaging with the Equality and Human Rights Commission inquiry into disability hate crime. As part of the Time to Change campaign (www.time-to-change.org.uk ), Mind is also campaigning to tackle mental health discrimination within society, as until we stamp out stigma, disability hate crime will continue to ruin the lives of far too many people with experience of mental distress.
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"Disability hate crime has to be stopped. It is targeting brilliant people just trying to get on with their lives. It can have a profound effect on their mental health."
I couldn't agree more.
I am personally also concerned about the result of the ever increasing "war" on benefit claimants. Many of which suffer mental illness. Tabloids such as The Sun are actively (which claiming Mr Cameron's support) encouraging people to shop the apparent easy-to-spot cheats directly to the paper. With mental illness, it is not that easy and this targetting feels unacceptable. I fear this will increase hate crime and further alienate those with mental illness who are on benefits.
Their examples include someone on disability shovelling snow, and someone going to the gym. No other details are given, but they indicate these actions alone make a benefit claimant a cheat.
This is worrying.
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l agree with what is being said. What I feel sad about is how the media and our political leaders are using negative derogratory language that if it was against other groups, then they would have a legal right of protection but it only reinforces, well to me anyway, that the sick and disabled are seen as third class citizens and unless we have some hidden swiss bank account we can not fight back. The imagery which is given to the public, to me, is tantamount to incitement which can only lead to unlawful acts. We are living in sad times. Until people are educated, not the benefit system, things will get worse.
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Thank you for such a full reply, Amy. The trouble is, the Mind campaign appears to be treating hate crime as being unrelated to the fires of hatred being stoked by the tabloid press and the Government. How can it possibly be unrelated? Every time the press insinuates that 60% of people on benefits aren't entitled to them (by distorting the figures from Atos assessments and disregarding appeals), does Mind make a complaint? Does Mind write a strongly worded letter to the editor of the paper? When Govt ministers degrade claimants (as with IDS's reference to the enhanced social status of working people, i.e. people who can't work are at the bottom of the social ladder and should remain there), does Mind issue a statement to everyone who will listen condemning at least their language, if not their stated "facts" and policies?
I'm not just talking about "how will Government policy affect disabled people", I'm talking about standing up against the smears and general disrespect towards the disabled from seemingly all angles. In terms of their abilities and position in society, many people with mental health problems are no more able to stand up for themselves than children. What is Mind doing to stop the direct, psychological abuse they are being subjected to daily by those in positions of power? Because that's what it is. I hate having to say this, but their emphasis on scroungers, with the unsubstantiated insinuations like those mentioned by Sim, are the same barely-legal bigotry as reporting men who molest young boys as being examples of the kind of thing gay men get up to. They're allowed to say it, but it's twisting the facts out of recognition. It's hate speech in itself.
@Sim - got it in one
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I am fed up with everyone going on about benefit claimants being scroungers etc .Also I want people to stick up for asylum seekers who most often than not are traumatsed by horrific injuries and sights no one ever should see.
I want someone to say to vulnerable people ' we are fighting your corner and will tell you what the reforms actually mean so less people do not self destruct with fear'.
The law is the law so why did Cameron smoke dope at Eton? Why did regulations have loopholes, in the expenses row?
Why are we still paying for repairation after the abolishment of colonialism? this was the rich and greedy all exploiting the system., while we british people were made to be minions and do as we are told.
Tell history as it is and not be selective!!!! -
Incitement of hatred against people with mental health difficulties [specifically on benefits] seems to be almost acceptable or not worthy of countering and it isn't helped by the fact that much is emanating from the government and press. Evidence of the impact of this needs to be collated, people are being admitted to hospital, who's going to collect this evidence?
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On the issue of benefits and welfare reform, we agree that some of the media and political coverage falls within the category of harassment of people with disabilities. For that reason, we will be including a section on this in our response to the EHRC inquiry on Disability Hate Crime that Amy mentioned in her post.
I totally agree with many of the comments about the vicious style and tone of much of this coverage and I am angered and upset each morning when I read the reports posted by various newspapers. The excessive focus on the minority of people who fraudulently claim benefits and the inflammatory language used is disgraceful, particularly when the real story is that many people are being wrongly declared fit-for-work and that cuts could have a devastating effect on those on benefits, who are some of the poorest people in society. My instinctive response is to concentrate our efforts on combating this misrepresentation.
However, I also know that we don’t have the influence or capacity to stop certain parts of the media endlessly running what is a simplistic and emotive story or to stop the Government from using benefits as a distraction from the impact of other cuts that they are making. Those in the media and Government responsible for creating the climate of distrust and anger towards benefits claimants are very careful with their words, even though their intent is clear, and it is extremely hard to pin-down specific examples of statements that are false or clearly implicate all benefit claimants – there’s always the get-out clause that they “obviously weren’t talking about genuine claimants”. We will continue to challenge this onslaught through the most appropriate channels and working with responsible journalists to balance the coverage. However, we must concentrate our efforts where we can have the most significant impact.
That is why we are focusing on trying to ensure that the welfare system is reformed to better recognise and support people with mental health problems. To do so, we need your help and support: find out how you can be involved here: http://www.mind.org.uk/campaigns_and_issues/policy_and_issues/making_benefits_fairer-welfare_reform
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disability hate proporganda, should also be targeted it is completely unfair that those in reciept of benefits should be the the victims of such unbridled hate campaingn perpatrated by the press and media the like of which has not not been seen since the hate capmpaign against the jews in the second world war.
the government also encourages stalinist style "report your neighbour if you think they are a benefit cheat", which reminicent of the gulaug in which neighbours reported neighbours on a whim or a grudge, where fear of the state was the norm.
i would like to ask mind to take a more active role in defense of those who claim benefits, i would like mind to publically defend those who through no fault of their own and least able to defend themselfs stand up for take a more visable defense of the most vunerable people in our society.
what does it say about a our society when those least able to defend themself are viefied in the press and media and condenmed by governments, it says we are a nation of bullies who pick on the weakest.
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Hi Tom@Mind - want to borrow my towel when you've finished throwing in your own??
Seriously, I read your comment above in utter despair. If Mind think it's a hopeless cause, where to go now?
We know the giant monster created by the joint forces of government and media is a scary one, but never before have I known Mind to be so openly defeatist about something which affects people on such a huge scale.
It's all very well to say as individuals you feel angry and upset, but that doesn't help much if Mind as an organisation are giving up and just allowing that part to happen whilst they concentrate on the rest. Yes it's incredibly important and very much appreciated to hear you're going for the WCA. But the fear is many people won't even make it to their WCA because of the hate campaign we have to endure daily.It wouldn't take much for Mind to get in the papers themselves with a few stories about how this endless vilification is affecting people. To point out how horrendous and inaccurate the language is. To provide a few facts & figures that show how many people are being found to claim fraudulently, as opposed to how much is DWP error. To place some of those figures against the seemingly untouchable tax evasion figures and allow the public to see which is dwarfed by the other and who the real cheats are. To give a few accounts of how many A&E visits, hospital stays and suicide attempts there have already been purely as a result of living on the receiving end of so much hatred. To keep repeating, as often as you need to, that what the government and the media are doing is unacceptable and IS a form of hate crime. It's already been said, "replace the words 'benefit claimant' with the word 'black' and see if it would be so easily acceptable". To say all these things out there in full view of the public, not just on your own website where the only people who read it are those who already have an interest. The majority of general public who think we're scroungers never started out feeling malicious, they just kept being drip-fed these false facts and assume it to be true because there's so much of it flying around. So if Mind [and other charities too, I'm not just getting at Mind here] jumped in and started flooding the arena with stories from the other side, maybe it might make people stop and think before blindly assuming it to be true.
I'd also suggest that if those of us dealing with the hatred read a few reports in the mainstream media from Mind and other charities defending our position, it would go a long way to helping deal with the more unpleasant stuff. I can't tell you how it felt the other day to read just a few lines from the CAB supporting us [sorry can't remember where], it gave just a glimmer of hope that there is someone out there who understands and isn't giving up. That sort of thing makes such a difference - just one report saying "it's unacceptable" in amongst all the dozens of reports that day telling us we're evil nasty cheating scum. If we know we have that support, it's easier to fight for ourselves but right now a lot of people are feeling abandoned. If the biggest mental health charity in the UK isn't bothering to try, what hope do we as individuals have?
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Annika - I think you have missed the point. I don't think Tom (or Mind) is throwing in the towel. I think Tom just meant that you can't get The Sun or The Daily Mail to stop printing the vile stuff that they do.
I remember reading on the Mind website a couple of weeks ago that Mind were on BBC radio condemning the Government for targetting people with mental health problems
I also read the guardian online and saw this
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jul/27/benefits-health-test-reviewI completely agree with you about tax evasion. If you look at the money spent on people who need to claim benefits and the money spent to support people who are refugees or asylum seekers compared to the money that people avoid paying in taxes, you can see where the money is really lost.
yet it is people who are in need who are demonised in the papers. i wonder if this is because people who own newspapers do not pay their proper tax!
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Thanks for the links Emily. I haven't missed the point - I know the Mail are never going to stop printing their crap. But wouldn't it be useful if Mind gave it a fair go and tried to balance the scale slightly in the other direction? OK, you've quoted one radio and one paper. But as you will know, we see many more reports every single day which make benefit claimants and particularly those claiming on mental health grounds at fault for all the trouble this country is in, and the consensus of these reports is always "let's get rid of the scroungers and the country will be fixed".
The way Tom worded his comment did make it look like he was giving up on that part, that it's impossible to tackle the hate campaign so they're not going to bother and will instead concentrate on the assessments and things. Which - as I said in my previous comment - is very important and very much appreciated, but there's no point dealing with an assessment procedure taking place in the future if people are distressed over what is happening right now, today, and have been for several months. If the hatred continues on its current path, there will be little point tackling the WCA because there won't be many of us left to need to take it! -
I cannot undestand why medical bodies such as the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Institute of Psychiatry are not backing Mind and speaking out against the escalating harrassment of people with mental health conditions at the hands of the government and benefit system?
Surely medical and support organisations covering all spectrums of illness should be united in ringing alarm bells over the detrimental effect welfare reform is having on recovery, remission and patient's financial security.
It is totally unacceptable that people with enduring conditions are being subjected to frightening and unfair medicals and forced to live on JSA with little chance of securing sustainable employment.
Why are The GMC and BMA taking such a backseat?
Surely the migration of IB claimants should be delayed until ESA is reviewed and/or those in exempt categories put automatically into the support group?
Much greater weight needs to be given to the information provided by claimants, their own GPs, specialists and support workers. It is impossible for a computerized medical carried out by an unknown practitioner to assess someone's complex medical history and how it effects their ability to secure and sustain paid employment.
As far as I know, there is no system in place to hold Atos Healthcare to account or feedback given to individual practitioners when claimants win appeals. It is unbelievable that some people are immediately issued with another medical form to complete. No-one should be subjected to another stressful review for at least twelve months after a successful appeal!
The Independent Case Examiner and Parliamentary and Health Ombudsman can investigate complaints where they identify maladministration and may well recommend that compensation is awarded in recognition of distress caused, but they have no or little jurisdiction over the quality of medical advice.
Unless one of the outcomes of the EHRC and various other inquiries is to ensure a robust complaint's procedure is put in place which includes jurisdiction over the quality of the medicals and advice provided by Atos Healthcare and action taken against them where it is found to be poor; the current system of subjecting people to unfair medicals for the purpose of down-grading benefits, will go on and on. -
Good point, where is the RCP? Their members will be dealing with the readmissions.
ATOS are breaching human rights, where are the lawyers? -
Exactly!!!!! 'They have 'duty of care' where is it now? We are forced drugs but told we cannot be sick anymore . Where are they now?
Okay a vision:- No jobs to go to , no home to go to , prisons turn into concentration camps as all prisons will be at breaking point as he police have to deal with more aggression.
Everyone in society classed as mentally ill if they do not agree with societies rules. (this equality was supposed to reduce stigma ha ha ha) -
Could someone send these conversation somewhere higher up, to make sure that these voices are heard
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I am going through depression at this time, I really hate this illness but I hate the way society treats us even more.
Hate crime? nothing new but the things that happen to us will never be in that remit. It is not a hate crime for NHS managers to conspire to end a nurses career on the basis that their depression might pose a danger to patients even though they have done nothing wrong. It is not a hate crime when some annonymous beings ring up the headmistress of a local school warning her that the person who applied for a lunchtime job has mental problems and shouldn't be working with children. It is not a hate crime to be rejected by your family because you may have said something unpleasant years ago which would have been forgotton if it had been anyone else. It is not a hate crime to be consistently rejected for jobs because of mental illness. Now it is not a hate crime to have your income taken away and be told your a scrounger.
I can expect no help for this depression as the services have labelled me as 'untreatable'. It is all my personality apparantly. No doubt if I upset some member of the public they will only be too glad to have me sectioned.
worst of all we have no voice. Free speech does not apply to us. The Daily Express will carry on with their 'scrounger' stories knowing they can do it with impunity and we have no right of reply. Lets not forget the 'genuine' are those with physical illnesses. I'd like these journalists to have my depression and I'll have their job. My articles will be 20 times better than any of the crap they have come up with.
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It would be good to get some legal advice somehow as there seems to be a suggestion around that the type of campaigns being waged by the present government, some broadcasters and newspapers are not hate crime as they are not targeted against a particular individual but generalised and (you will notice) often there is a snippet amongst the reporting that none of their viciousness is directed at those 'genuinely' entitled to benefits. Therefore taking any legal action against those responsible might be very difficult. Unfortunately the press seem to be deciding for themselves who is genuine and who is not by asking members of the public to report those they suspect of claiming sickness/disability benefits and whom they (the public) think are faking etc. directly to the newspaper in question. How are the public to know the private details of each person's health and why they are claiming. They just assume that if you can walk and talk then you are a scrounger. I have seen one article in a national newspaper scoffing at mental illness and pretty much suggesting that it just a matter of pulling oneself together and that the state is just namby pamby-ing us. The current hate and blame campaign is affecting people with physical conditions as well are mental health conditions and I feel for everyone. On a personal level, I think what hurts me most of all is that the government doesn't think I have any value in society....no value as a human being....just a financial burden (and one they are going to eradicate by taking away the money that helps me to have some quality of life and force me to find a non existent job - what chance have I got with over 20 years of mental health problems and reaching retirement age of getting a job with hours that I could cope with and days off when necessary). As far as paid employment is concerned I am not employable. My mental health is suffering badly as a result and I feel threatened, stigmatized and de-valued. I have done what I can when I can, helped with the upbringing of my grandchildren (so my children could work), done voluntary work, run a home. I spoke to a mental health professional today who suggested that I was taking this all to personally, (she said the government campaign is not about me as an individual specifically), and therefore my feelings were 'of concern to her', i.e., I was overreacting? I hope to god I am overreacting because the future for many people already struggling with health problems both physical and mental is not looking good.
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Hugs linda you deserve one. Sorry from me for what you have had to go through xx
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Maisy, you are NOT overreacting, many people feel this way and are now deteriorating. Mental health professionals need to start taking this wholly understandable and utterly comensurate reaction seriously because it IS personal, it's an incitement of hatred and devaluation of whole groups of people. They should be concerned - but not in a diagnostic way, they need to be reassuring service users that they will support them as best as they can.
Linda, as for being 'untreatable', palliative care provides emotional and physical support to people who will never recover because they are dying. Palliative care nurses pride themselves on helping people to live before dying. It's a pity that mental health services cannot learn something from them - that even if a persons distress appears to be so enduring that it may be a feature for the foreseeable future - that the person still deserves support to live. 'Treatability' is a contentious issue really, because often what is meant by that is failure to respond to drugs/CBT is the service users fault, not that maybe the treatment was crap and not suitable! -
Hi David, it was very interesting reading your experiences and thoughts, thank you for sharing them.
I was bullied throughout school, however the bullying was (I am told) for 'being too bright'. It wasn't directly the trigger for my Bipolar although it certainly wouldn't have helped.
What I find most galling, as a mental health patient, is that I have again been subject to 'victimisation' for "being too bright". Please bear with me, I know this sounds arrogant, but these words have actually been used by my first (and main) psychiatrist. Basically he used my high IQ as an excuse for every symptom that can possibly fit, and any symptoms that didn't fit were ignored. Thankfully I was properly studied over a whole weekend (along with my identical twin) and was diagnosed through a twin study, because if it was just down to the NHS I would be dead now with my family being told I was 'too intelligent to be able to fit in with, or understand, the world in which I live' (this was actually said to me by the psychiatrist).
What my psychiatrist failed to realise was that although I've achieved academically, I've actually achieved far less than I could have because of the long spells of depression and mania (during which academia is out the window). Unfortunately the hospital I was an out-patient at was in an area high in poverty and most of his patients did not complete high school education, so I can only think that rather than treat me according to my own academic potential he compared my achievements to the mean academic potential of all his patients. To my mind current psychiatry completely fails to treat individuals, and I am increasingly disillusioned with the NHS. I am lucky enough to be able to put the experiences of what occurs within my head into words (or analogies) that people who are not mentally ill can understand, however, I can only do this on the rare occasions that I am 'stable' and so during those times I write down what I can. My psychiatrist fails to see that while I may have a clearer understanding of what is going on within my head, I have no more power to stop it than anyone else. And in some ways I think having the knowledge but being unable to change anything is more tormenting.
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You do write very well Linda. The content of your post has upset me deeply, as has David Stock's account of the bullying he was subjected to at school, but thank you for speaking out.
I have been picked on in the workplace and warned that I would never get another job within an organisation if I went off sick with depression, but it is the treatment I have received at the hands of the benefit system and its medical process that has triggered so much ongoing distress in me.
Is it a hate crime when an Atos Healthcare's Medical Quality Manager dissects a consultant psychiatrist's clearly supportive medical evidence and presents it in a way that can be held against someone?
It is unacceptable that we are being scrutinized by such an unethical company as Atos Healthcare. I welcome the organisation being placed under the microscope in the WCA review being led by Professor Malcolm Harrington, with Mind's Chief Executive Paul Farmer on its very own scrutiny panel.
Like Maisy I have been told that I am 'taking it all too personally', but like to think it was said out of concern for my wellbeing rather than because I am 'overreacting' to what is undoubtedly an escalating attack on an extremely vulnerable section of our society.
Thousands and thousands of people are being forced to appeal for their sickness benefits and even more thousands and thousands are due to face unfair medicals under the looming IB migration unless positive action is taken now.
Whilst on the subject of harrassment. By encouraging our neighbours to report anyone to the authorities who they 'suspect' of defrauding the benefit system, and doing so in full knowledge that the majority of such accusations turn out to be unjustified - it is blatant 'incitement of hatred' on the part of our leaders.
I hope this very important issue will be addressed by the EHRC inquiry along with all the other types of harrassment people with disabilities are suffering under the welfare reform regime.
We are being made to live in fear and it is totally unacceptable.
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well the conservitive values are back.
The strongest survives attitude is back.
lets get rid of the weak ideology is back
I just wonder who some of you voted for, because what you get is not always want you want.
I have deppression and therefor I am in a minority and minorities are sometimes ignored or dispised. -
I aggree with all the comments made, I have had deppression for 17 years.
It will always be a battle to change the publics point of view.
The biggest offenders of this problem are the people at the very top, who run this country. I am trying not be political but is is very hard, because without the support of the people at the top, people in minorities will always face a battle being accepted.
Its very very sad.
We are the only species on this planet that care for the sick and vulnerable and yet there are those who want to change this for the sake of money. -
It’s clear that this isn’t a straightforward issue to tackle. But, I don't know - part of me still waits and hopes that something will change that will prompt immediate and urgent action by the charities. They way they have approached the issue of welfare reform is clearly not effective enough. I can only hope that at some point, Mind will put any bureaucracy aside to use any influence they have, and do something decisive. Not the quiet lobbying and occasional blog entry..
I appreciate the wonderful work that Mind has done on a number of issues throughout the years, but the community is afraid right now. The problems ahead for those with mental distress are, by far, the most serious in a number of years. I can only hope that charities such as Mind will stand up and take decisive action before it’s too late.
In the meantime, I will be keeping watch of the carerwatch.com campaign. They are a small group of unpaid carers with almost no resources, but are quite inspiring when things get tough.
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http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/8344757.Campaigners__joy_after_plans_for_mental_health_home_withdrawn/
Directly supported by Chris Grayling, Minister of State, Work and Pensions -
I recently contacted the Equality and Human Rights Commission re the Prime Ministers use of "benefit Scroungers" etc .The reply I received,In my opinion ,dodged the issue.They stated as the statements could refer to able as well as disabled people they could do nothing about it.In fact we are well aware of where the comments were aimed.
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a few weeks ago the government stated it intention to "cut benefits for drug addicts" within an hour of the story breaking, charities representing drug addicts where all over the news, stating why this was a bad idea - which it is - i incensed that when there are storys about "benefits scrounger" no one, no one from any charity is there to speak up for the sick and disabled.
if the drugs charitys can do then so can mind.
step up to the mark mind and defend those who you are supposed to represent.
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A nurse has told me about the DWP writing to GP's and instructing them to NOT write further sick notes for service users they have just turned down for benefits.. Is this legal? Can the DWP instruct GP’s to stop signing off a person they decide against the GP’s judgement is not sick?
Joe, I think all the mental health charities have realised this fight is not winnable because there isn't a single advocate in parliament in any party, what is needed now are lawyers
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