England's system...one person's perspective by Niki2

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England's system...one person's perspective

POSTED BY: NIKI2
UPDATED: Tuesday, March 1, 2011 16:38
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Thursday, February 24, 2011 11:46 AM

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Had a post on the website I run for mental health issues from one of our members in England. She's had a rough time--she's Bipolar I and young, which makes it doubly difficult for her to get by. She's gotten her benefits from their disability system, and I just thought I'd share what she has to say, given some here like to knock the British system endlessly:

Quote:
As much as we complain about the benefit system being so shit in this country mine have actually been sorted really well so I have enough to live on, and for the first time in my life don't need to worry about money. I can get myself places, buy food, enjoy myself without having to panic about money coming in, which I'm sure you'll all appreciate is one of the most liberating feelings in the world. The worry about whether there's enough food or whether I can get to college or buy books isn't there and my god its good!

Just thought someone might find it interesting; she's a really bright gal, really sweet, has lived in poverty with no hope, and has had a damned difficult time; their disability system is now taking care of her, and she hopes to get off it as soon as he gets the education to take care of herself.

No biggie, just what's happening in another part of the world and one person saying "it works".

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

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Thursday, February 24, 2011 2:15 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

Niki, I'm glad your friend is doing well.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Friday, February 25, 2011 9:13 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Thanx, Rion; it was great to hear all this, given what she's been through. I should have added, tho', that I have another friend of equal length friendship who has been treated HORRIBLY by the system...some stories would make your hair stand up. Admittedly he's not the easiest person to deal with, whereas she's a sharp, sensible person, but it's only fair to add that he's had a heckofa time with the British Mental Health System. The Disability system has been okay for him and he can survive on what he gets, but his attempts to get real help via the BMHS have been awful.

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

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Friday, February 25, 2011 9:31 AM

WULFENSTAR

http://youtu.be/VUnGTXRxGHg

Dogs, less than dogs, grateful for the scraps they are given.

Even when those scraps are taken from the blood and sweat of their friends and family.

Keep your socialist ideals. Or take them from my country. They have no place here.

"Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies"

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Sunday, February 27, 2011 9:03 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

Wulf, we may agree on some things but I don't like your harsh atitude here, I understand the basis of it, but I feel you're going too far to compare people to dogs. But you do have the right to free speech ... so carry on if you must, but good grief that was just too much.

Niki, any system has flaws, no system is perfect.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Monday, February 28, 2011 3:43 AM

DREAMTROVE

If the British system cared about it's appearance, I think they would have treated Syd Barret better, since that was pretty high profile, and doomed to be etched in everyone's mind forever.

Eta, oh, this is about the dole?

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Monday, February 28, 2011 6:17 AM

KANEMAN

OM GAWD, another mental health thread!!! Are you people insane?

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Monday, February 28, 2011 3:08 PM

MAGONSDAUGHTER

What happens in the US?

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Monday, February 28, 2011 3:31 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

I think disability money is important, some of us need extra help.

Megan's, in the US a person can get disability for "physical" disabilities and/or for "mental"/brain ones. A person has to apply with the Social Security Office, you can apply online or in person. Then you hear back whether you are accepted and will start getting benefits. If you are turned down you have 60 days to appeal, sometimes this can be done without involving lawyers etc. but sometimes if you're denied it is best to get a social security lawyer who specializes in these things to plead your case. Sometimes people can get back payments if the case has been dragging on and they've been found deserving of benefits. It can be a difficult process, some people get accepted right away, with just filling out a form and interviewing but some people have to go round in circles in order to get things working for them.

The payments aren't that big either. If you start working at a paying job then the amount you get from social security dominishes. So if you work a part time job, less than 20 hours then you get your paycheck plus some SS money, but if you work enough hours then they'll stop sending you SS. If you are getting paid at a job then you have to call in once a month and tell them how much you made that month so they can adjust your amount from them according to the rules.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Monday, February 28, 2011 5:20 PM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Thanx, Rion, you pretty much nailed it. Magons, bear in mind that some here feel anyone on disability is lazy, a scam artist, or merely a blood sucker. The fact that we paid disability insurance every single paycheck we ever got means nothing to them; and disability don't pay shit. I earned a damned good salary all my working life; disability pays me $1,000 a month. Imagine trying to live on $1,000 a month--but when the option is nothing, it comes down to survival.

I PAID my Disability insurance. Now I need it. Screw you Wulf...and Rion, you're wasting your breath trying to talk to him about being civil. He doesn't know how. But he's still usually less offensive than the deliberately disgusting trolls here. Mostly he's just uninformed, misinformed and prejudiced. How he expresses it is often rude...but telling those people that won't make a dent, so you needn't waste your time.

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

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Monday, February 28, 2011 5:58 PM

MAGONSDAUGHTER

That sucks, Niki. Do you get other pensions? Aged pension? Superannuation? Do you get discounts on stuff because you are on the pension?

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Tuesday, March 1, 2011 12:02 PM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Oh, there are things that have special prices for the elderly (like movie tickets, etc.) but it's on a voluntary basis. I BELIEVE when I hit whatever age they're making Social Security (because they'll probably up it, as they have in the past), that my disability becomes Social Security, but the amount probably doesn't change. I don't know if we can get food stamps or anything else.

Jo had it absolutely WHIPPED in England. She'd never really had a job, and she's too disabled by her mental illness to ever do so. So she's been on disability since she was 18, and they get help paying rent, disability will buy them a great wheelchair (which she said she was in last time we talked), they'll buy her a special car to take the wheelchair around, and more. They take care of their people, tho' getting good therapy is real tough, and they're cutting back benefits last I heard.

I'm okay, but I know others who aren't. Often those with mental illness are pushed away by their families, or are made the low man on the totem pole, so parents don't help. I know a few who live in pretty bad conditions...cheap apartments, rented mobile homes, etc. I had a 401K and so did Jim, and he's continued working so he stashes all HIS Social Security into our retirement account. A lot of people are like him; they keep on working past the age where they should retire (Jim turns 73 this year). Many of them do it JUST to get health insurance, because Medicare only covers, I believe, 80% of medical expenses, so working longer under an employer's plan puts off medical expenses.

Jim JUST went to three days a week, which I've been begging him to do for years. He's been at four days a week, but he's just so tired, has a bad back among other things, that I wish he'd give it up. We'd get by somehow--probably have to leave Marin, but we'd survive. It's friends I know who aren't so lucky that break my heart.

Oh, and Rion, as far as I know, everyone who gets rejected, when/if they finally get accepted, gets "back pay" to the first time they applied. Known a number of people who've applied...for some it took years...and they all got a lump sum when their disability actually started, dating back to the first application. THAT's a blessing, believe me! I've known some that were hanging on by their fingernails, and the lump sum helped them get a place to live and not be able to worry about what to eat the next day. Of course, when that's gone, it becomes tough.

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

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Tuesday, March 1, 2011 12:09 PM

MAGONSDAUGHTER

People with mental illness do it tough all over, some places more so than others by the sound of it. The problem with our system here isn't the benefits, but the treatment. There are few options for a publicly funded client if they need hospital admission, and even fewer if they need a longer term stay somewhere. Sometimes people need that level of care, and prescribing medication and sending home just does not cut it. The big ideological shift away from institutionalising people with mental illnesses had its price, now there are few places for people with long term debilitating illnesses to go, and they end up homeless or in prison. Frabkly, they would have been better off in the institutions, horrible as they were.

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Tuesday, March 1, 2011 12:26 PM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Well, I don't think they'd have been better off in the institutions (you haven't SEEN some of those places!), from what I've seen here in the states, but yes, I agree with the rest. The "get 'em to stop acting out then send 'em home" mentality that has become pervasive the past few years is unfortunate, as is the fact that so many mentally ill end up incarcerated rather than getting treatment. We work hard on the website I run to educate new people, because most people leave the psychiatrist's office after the first appointment with a diagnosis, a prescription and little (if anything) else. There are resources, but nobody tells you how to FIND them!

I mentioned my other friend who's had problems getting help over in England. He's had one hell of a time. He's got severe anxiety problems, but has to ride a train to London to see a psychotherapist (which means he has to catch the train real early in the morning). He's done so, only to find they cancelled his appointment and didn't bother to call. He had one psychotherapist who couldn't speak English (!) and another who started rambling about how to bake a cake in mid-session. My friend WANTS help, but even the groups he forces himself to attend get cut because of funding or something else. He was part of a "befriender" program where they give you a friend to get you out and about and help you socialize, and it was working really well for him, but that just got cut too.

But none of us have it as bad as places like Japan. You know about the "saving face" thing...well, most mentally ill are literally HIDDEN by their families, or turned out, so as not to embarrass them. Ergo, few of them admit to their problems. I don't know how it is in China or any of the rest of the East, but we had a member on another forum I was on who was in Korea, and didn't dare admit she had a problem; she told us about how it was in Japan and said it was the same in Korea. Hopefully that's begun to change since then...

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

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Tuesday, March 1, 2011 4:38 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

Oh my goodness Meghan's and Niki, don't get me started on the lack of long term care options, it is my soap box.

Some people don't need longterm care, they can mannage on their own with the right medicine, or they have family to help, or with whom to live. But some just can't. My goal in life, God willing, is to open and run a group home for the ones who need longterm care and looking after by loving folk who care about them. Of course we need all kinds of housing options, from apartments to transitional housing to establishments like mine will be. It is all in short supply. In my city it is hard to find a good placement for someone who is touched, they have to get on waiting lists, its frustrating for their carers etc. But its vital for special people like that to have good looking after. I imagine that some folk to come to live at my establishment will only stay for a while, get stable and then move back with family or out on their own or with rommates, but some will always need our level of care and will stay with us. I'm naming my house after our River, since you guys are fellow browncoats you should understand why. Though I'm thankful I won't have to worry about psychic assassins, regular touched folk will be enough thanks. :)

So Niki, it sounds like you still get to talk to your good friend Jo, that is good, how is she getting on? And I've heard of befriender programs in the UK, I think its a wonderful idea, especially for the people who live alone and need companionship, sad to here its being cut.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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