R
Richy G
Member
Hello, I am new to this forum. I am a man in my late 20s who lives in a town in the Midlands. I just wanted to share my story to see if anyone could relate.
I have been suffering from depression for a number of years and have also been diagnosed with aspergers syndrome since the age of 13.
A few years back I was referred to the local community mental health team. I told them that I did not think I was ready to attempt employment and I wanted to try and do some voluntary work, they agreed. And for a period of two years I was doing some woodworking and gardening as voluntary work and things were ok.
Unfortunately, one of my major problems is with not having consistant sleep patterns, poor sleep, and low motivation, making it very difficult to guarantee timekeeping and punctuallity, meaning that I frequently struggled to arrive on time, not by much, but usually by 5-20 minutes.
The people at my woodworking were generally quite relaxed and understanding about this. But in the summer of this year, my care co-ordinator decided to make a huge issue about it, and demanded that I achieved perfect punctuallity, I told them that I was unlikely to be able to achieve this, although I tried unsucessfully, it caused me a lot of stress, and my sleeping problem got worse.
Personally I suspect that she knew I couldn't achieve this, and was looking for an excuse to get rid of me (or perhaps I'm being paranoid).
Anyway in the summer of this year, having failed to achieve their demands. I was dropped from the service, and referred to the 'charity' Rethink. Who took over my case and tried to find me some part time courses and voluntary work. Which I have been doing.
This week however, I had a meeting with the Rethink person, who told me that from now on, due to a government innitiative, they could only deal with people who were actively seeking (non existant) employment. We both agreed that I was not ready for this, so I was discharged from their service. She seemed to be quite upset by this as it meant that the majority of her clients were being dropped.
Why a "charity" is slavishly following a government policy is beyond me. I was paying them money from a direct debit but I have cancelled this in disgust.
So now I am completely alone as regards help from metal health services.
It seems that the entire system is set up for one single purpose. Getting people of benefits and into non existant work. This appears to be the policy of this disgrace of a government, who have no understanding of the complexities of mental health issues.
As for many people this is completely innapropriate, as many people need years of help before they could even consider working, many vunerable people are being cut off.
I am sorry for my rant, but I needed to get this off my chest.
I have been suffering from depression for a number of years and have also been diagnosed with aspergers syndrome since the age of 13.
A few years back I was referred to the local community mental health team. I told them that I did not think I was ready to attempt employment and I wanted to try and do some voluntary work, they agreed. And for a period of two years I was doing some woodworking and gardening as voluntary work and things were ok.
Unfortunately, one of my major problems is with not having consistant sleep patterns, poor sleep, and low motivation, making it very difficult to guarantee timekeeping and punctuallity, meaning that I frequently struggled to arrive on time, not by much, but usually by 5-20 minutes.
The people at my woodworking were generally quite relaxed and understanding about this. But in the summer of this year, my care co-ordinator decided to make a huge issue about it, and demanded that I achieved perfect punctuallity, I told them that I was unlikely to be able to achieve this, although I tried unsucessfully, it caused me a lot of stress, and my sleeping problem got worse.
Personally I suspect that she knew I couldn't achieve this, and was looking for an excuse to get rid of me (or perhaps I'm being paranoid).
Anyway in the summer of this year, having failed to achieve their demands. I was dropped from the service, and referred to the 'charity' Rethink. Who took over my case and tried to find me some part time courses and voluntary work. Which I have been doing.
This week however, I had a meeting with the Rethink person, who told me that from now on, due to a government innitiative, they could only deal with people who were actively seeking (non existant) employment. We both agreed that I was not ready for this, so I was discharged from their service. She seemed to be quite upset by this as it meant that the majority of her clients were being dropped.
Why a "charity" is slavishly following a government policy is beyond me. I was paying them money from a direct debit but I have cancelled this in disgust.
So now I am completely alone as regards help from metal health services.
It seems that the entire system is set up for one single purpose. Getting people of benefits and into non existant work. This appears to be the policy of this disgrace of a government, who have no understanding of the complexities of mental health issues.
As for many people this is completely innapropriate, as many people need years of help before they could even consider working, many vunerable people are being cut off.
I am sorry for my rant, but I needed to get this off my chest.
