Thre United Kingdom is almost broke. Our glorious new Tory government has decided the best way to tackle this is with savage public spending cuts. As part of this, many people, like myself who are in reciept of 'Incapacity benefit' due to long tem illness will be re-tested to see if they are fit for work. The problem being that the focus of these tests will be basic physical things like can you stand on one leg? Can you scratch the back of your head? Can you bed down? Can you pick up a pen? Nothing to assess one's mental health.
I have schizo-effective disorder, which means I suffer from both severe derpression and schizophrenia-like symptoms. In the past I called a phone-in show on the local BBC radio station to voice my opinion after a caller said in his opinon depression was simply laziness, weakness and if people were given a damn good shake and a slap in the face then they would recover.
This morning at around 8am, BBC 3 counties radio called me and asked if I would be willing to give my opinon, as someone with mental health issues on this plan to get people on incapacity benefit back to work. So, I let them call me back and said my bit, thinking nothing of it.
About an hour ago, the presenter called me and asked if I'd be willing to attend the studio as a guest next thursday (17th of april) to be part of a discussion about mental illness.
Currently in the uk there's a campaign to stop the stigma of talking about mental illness www.time-to-change.org.uk/ so, I'm happy to go, and only hope that by sharing my experiences I can help others.
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