Each week we publish blog posts on a whole range of topics, relating in some way to mental health — written by Mind staff, service users and health and policy professionals. Some blog posts may not reflect official Mind policy.
We welcome comments and questions on our posts, but have a few ground rules to keep the site welcoming and interesting to every body. The first rule is the most important: be respectful of other commenters and bloggers.
Following his resignation from the Government's review panel for the Work Capability Assessment, our Chief Executive Paul Farmer blogs about the damage the process is doing to the lives of people with mental health problems.
95 CommentsWe recently published our updated guide to housing and mental health. Chris from our Information team blogs about the importance of stable, affordable and secure housing for good mental health.
1 CommentKirsty has always worked, but when she was forced to leave her stressful job owing to mental health problems, she was shocked to find herself slipping below the poverty line.
I had a Saturday job from the age of 13, worked my way through my A-levels in retail, and then through my degree as an auxiliary nurse.
26 CommentsWe urgently need your help to overturn some very damaging parts of the Government’s Welfare Reform Bill.
If there’s one thing you do today, please tweet the Peers in the House of Lords and ask them to support the changes we’re calling for.
16 CommentsThis is the second in a series of guest blogs by Alison who is working again after 13 years on incapacity benefits.
Following my blog in August, I can now report on my first few weeks in paid work. I feel emotionally overwhelmed. There are so many changes for me to figure out and make these major adjustments to my life.
12 CommentsIn this guest blog, Lee describes his experience of being re-assessed for the new Employment and Support Allowance.
As part of the DWP’s attempt to migrate all those still receiving Incapacity Benefit on to their new system of Employment and Support Allowance, I was recently issued with a 20-page ‘Limited capability for work questionnaire’ – which I can only describe as an interrogation on paper.
How does this make me feel? Well, anyone with a mental health condition can probably guess; stressed, anxious, frustrated and resentful.
17 CommentsThis is the first in a series of guest blogs by Alison who is about to start working after 13 years on incapacity benefits.
I have been on incapacity benefits for nearly 13 years, supported by health professionals sensitive to letting me progress at my own pace. This year I’ve felt ready for change and wanted to control my own journey into work. I asked my social worker to refer me to a supported employment adviser.
23 CommentsThe Work Capability Assessment (WCA) is probably the single issue that Mind has received the most contact about over the last couple of years. In response to this, and other concerns about issues like DLA reform and the new Work Programme, welfare and benefits has become one of Mind's key campaigning priorities.
As part of the benefits system reforms, the Government plans to replace Disability Living Allowance (DLA) with a new benefit: the Personal Independence Payment (PIP). It's not just the name that's changing — the assessment process is too. PIP will be allocated according to an individual's need, and measured by a new face-to-face ‘objective assessment’ (DLA was not assessed for in person).
The Government released a first draft of this assessment last week. Mind is responding to these proposals, and would like your feedback inform our response.
14 CommentsThis was a brief live blog during the Hardest Hit march on parliament. We were also tweeting from the march.
6 CommentsIt's not often I get excited about a Wednesday morning, but I've had 11 May marked in my diary for some time. I’ll be marching with Mind as part of the Hardest Hit campaign to protest against unfair and untenable cuts by the Government to vital benefits and services for disabled people.
At Mind, we know how much mental health issues can interfere with everyday tasks, and from coversations on Mind’s Facebook page, Twitter account and this blog, I know there are people who want to protest but are worried about marching, for mental health reasons.
3 CommentsIn the wake of last week's local and regional elections and electoral reform referendum, the media are feverishly debating the meaning of the contrasting messages from the voting public. Politicians attempt, in public, to put a positive spin on how their parties have fared whilst avoiding awkward questions about less favourable elements of the outcome. In private, they will be trying to divine from the results what the electorate is thinking.
Start the discussionToday, Mind joins with many disability charities, disabled people’s organisations and disabled people to announce the calling of a major march and lobby of Parliament on Wednesday May 11 to give us the chance to express concerns about the impact of the Government's welfare reform changes and of the public spending cuts on disabled people.
18 CommentsToday we posted our new welfare reform anxiety poll, a simple survey designed to capture how people currently on incapacity benefits are feeling about the prospect of changes to the welfare system.
We have already heard anecdotally from many of you about how worried you are about the effects changes to the benefits system will have on your life and your concerns about having to go through the work capability assessment (WCA). What our survey aims to do is to quantify people’s feelings and provide some figures which will demonstrate the impact welfare reform anxiety is having which we can use in our media and campaigns work.
27 CommentsToday, Mind has submitted a joint response to the Government’s consultation on reforming Disability Living Allowance, along with the Centre for Mental Health, Hafal, Rethink, the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Scottish Association for Mental Health. We decided that combining our experience and expertise on this issue was the best way to try to influence the reform process.
16 Comments