What's your view on this nonsense

[junior01]

Hi all,

Recently applied for critical illness cover as i'm self employed and was refused. Reason?, history of anxiety and depression. I'm physically excellent, manage a successful business, don' smoke, rarely drink, etc., however six years ago lost my mum, gran and a close aunt within a couple of months of each other. I'm seeking advice on my next move, i.e. is this mental health discrimination?, I certainly hope i'm not a candidate for a serious illness just cos i'm fed up now and then!!! Bloody hard enough without this nonsense. Hope you agree and share your thoughts.

Junior

 

[Dollit]

I applied for a mortgage and my insurance premium was 50% higher than normal because of a history of bipolar disorder. You could perhaps that as the stress/depression was as a result of life incidents it was reactive and therefore less like to occur. It's not discrimination unfortunately but perhaps one of the advocates at MIND might be able to help with the legal situation.

Life's a bugger then some git kicks you in the teeth.

 

[Rambuie Perspecador]

Ah, Discrimination! Don't tell me you didn't know about it! Disability Equality - trumpeted by HM Government from the Roof-tops; but some people are more Equal than others and have to wait in line at the back of any queue as 'unworthies' in the Big Grab at Life's Banquet. Hence the cowed and sullen silence that greets the Government's persecution of Incapacity Claimants as they herd us into pens ready for redeployment - we are no longer needed to make up the numbers as off sick, while the massage of Employment figures was going on. We are needed to be also-rans in a DWP-sponsored competition called hunt the career-opportunity. Had enough? So have all the rest of us in this sinking ship. At least we won't be the last to leave - that's for the Rats at Westminster.

 

[Twylight]

Ah, Discrimination! Don't tell me you didn't know about it! Disability Equality - trumpeted by HM Government from the Roof-tops; but some people are more Equal than others and have to wait in line at the back of any queue as 'unworthies' in the Big Grab at Life's Banquet. Hence the cowed and sullen silence that greets the Government's persecution of Incapacity Claimants as they herd us into pens ready for redeployment - we are no longer needed to make up the numbers as off sick, while the massage of Employment figures was going on. We are needed to be also-rans in a DWP-sponsored competition called hunt the career-opportunity. Had enough? So have all the rest of us in this sinking ship. At least we won't be the last to leave - that's for the Rats at Westminster.

Very True - last month saw the biggest rise in unemployment for 15 years - and most of it is the people who were on incapacity benefit and now seeking work.

 

[quality factor]

Just managed to get a mortgage etc. and am on the move hopefully in 3 weeks time. The bank agreed to my application knowing that some of my funding comes from incapacity and dla, mind you they wanted a fairly hefty deposit, (thanks mum!!). They needed letters of confirmation from works/pensions that I was long term before they committed themselves.
After your comment Dollit, I wonder if they'll want 50% more for my Life Insurance??? I'll wait to hear, I know they are writing to my GP.
I don't care what people say, there is still a lot of discrimination and stigma about.
"They" don't half make things difficult for us at times.

 

[Dollit]

I think it depends on your illness and it's severity - they're equally strict on physical disability. And having worked in corporate finance I can see both sides.

 

[quality factor]

Yes you've obviously got a better understanding of how things work. I suppose in some respects they can't afford to take chances.
I think to some extent I felt inferior just by saying I had a mental health problem when filling in the form over the phone with the financial advisor.
My point is there has to be more predjudice on us to make folks feel this inferiority in the first place. I certainly didn't feel like this when I was teaching and had to answer questions about status , employment etc.

 

[Dollit]

One of my closest friends is an IFA and he asked me recently what was bipolar disorder because he had a client who had made that disclosure. I explained about it and he was fine. Not everybody is prejudiced but the few that are make it difficult to be rational at times. But then not everyone is as enlightened as my friend.

 

[quality factor]

Quite!
When will the "Age of Enlightenment", reach Mental Health in the eyes of the general public I wonder??
I didn't usually have any problem with having mental health difficulties when I had been diagnosed with Bipolar, but now I shudder literally if I have to admit BDP. Personality Disorder has had so much bad press. I think the unenlightened focus in on the personality disorder bit of BPD and think I'm some type of monster!!![/I]

 

[Dollit]

Well I work in an area where I can actually help to change people's perceptions and how they handle things. Gave someone a lesson in how to change his body language recently and he has said it works. We can only keep pushing and plugging at it.

 

[Twylight]

I've always felt that the Mentaly ill have ' No Voice '.

All the decisions are made for us by Psychiatrists and the mental health services.

 

[ramboghettouk]

Discrimination, disability discrimination, they justify it on statistical risk, all sorts of groups have different statistical risks, the sort of employment, housing black people experience, they're probably a different statistical risk but it'd be racist to ask race on a insurance form.

They're now making a fuss about genetic testing allowing people to quantify the risk of various illnesses, whats the difference between discriminating before the illness expresses itself or after

 

[Dollit]

Twylight I have a lot of input into my treatment. My consultant wouldn't dream of telling me to do anything. We discuss everything first and a few years ago I stopped medication - even though he didn't agree with the decision he went along with it because it was what I wanted. I have had problems with the other members of the team but he actually does something about it.

I was a founder speaker with the Shift Speakers Bureau and shared a platform with a health minister. I spoke to lots of newspapers, radio stations etc during my time with them and still keep in touch with them.

There's an excellent part of the forum dedicated to Service User Involvement which covers a variety of things.

We even started an epetition to the Prime Minister.

We do have a voice, we just need to learn how to use it.

 

[quality factor]

Huh so now I'm a statistic!
Up here in North Wales they are trying desperately to involve us mentally ill people in joining up with the community.Doing things that "normal" people do!
What a flop! In reality it just hasn't worked.
In fact in my town they have shut our Centre down in favour of a damp chuch hall, well away from the community in general. We were all supposed to join local clubs, societies ,sports clubs etc. and mingle. What has actually happened is folks with problems have been abandoned and a once healthy (I use that word in the loose sense) thriving community of mentally ill folks are left basically with nothing. Funding was cut and once again we were discriminated against with the facilities available to us.
It works in theory but in reality no...it's still "us and them".

 

[Twylight]

I really beleive that the biggest problem with ' care in the community ', is the ' community '.

In my Local Pub, the landlady ( whose brother in law took his own life because of schizophrenia ), asked me to write all I knew.
So over a period of weeks I wrote and printed : what a psychosis was - what a super ego was, and what goes through our minds when we are unwell.
The landlady and her husband understood it perfectly and because in their occupation they meet many local people - the understanding has spread.

I've lived here for 16 years and now for the first time, local people smile at me and call me by my first name.

It would be great if more TV shows could highlight the lighter side of Mental illness, because some of the things we think and do are funny.